درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Purpose - At the local level, the role of rural management in achieving optimal rural planning and development goals is significant. There are several approaches to rural management, one of which is good rural governance. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of new rural management with an emphasis on good governance indicators for the villages in the Central District of Karaj County. Design/methodology/approach - Quantitative approach was used in conducting this research. The statistical population of the study includes 7 villages. 145 households were sequentially determined based on random sampling and using the modified Cochran's formula. SPSS software and the FARAS model were utilized to analyze the data. Findings - The results showed that the situation of governance indicators in the studied villages is lower than average. In addition, the results of the correlation between the indicators of good rural governance showed that the management system is the desired and subject to development in all indicators of good rural governance from the point of view of the villagers. Also, the ranking of the indicators of good governance using the FARAS model substantiated that the social participation index has the highest rank from the experts’ point of view. Research limitations/implications - The outbreak of coronavirus interfered with the process of data collection and information in the studied villages. This impeded the process of completing the research. In this regard, to reduce the negative impact of this restriction, interviews and completing questionnaires were conducted through the Internet. Practical implications - Activities should be taken through the interaction of non-governmental organizations, governmental and public organizations, and the private sector, removing existing obstacles, and financial and executive constraints for modern rural management in the villages of the Central District. Originality/value: The study is conducted by the mentioned researchers and in accordance with the official rules and procedures, and all dissertations, articles, books, etc. were referred to accordingly. The originality of the present study is in applying the FARAS fuzzy model to the studied villages in the Central District of Karaj County.

Purpose - Women as half of the human resources in rural areas play an important role in entrepreneurship development in rural communities. The reinforcement of rural women entrepreneurship is an effective approach for two development indices, that is., increasing employment and reducing unemployment. So, given the significance of the sustainability of small and medium-sized businesses of women in the rural economy and rural development, it is important to identify the factors influencing the sustainability of the entrepreneurship process among them. In this respect, this study aimed to explore the factors affecting the sustainability of the business of the entrepreneur women who were members of rural microcredit funds in Mazandaran province. Design/Methodology/Approach- The research was a descriptive one. The statistical population was composed of 776 entrepreneur women who were members of 26 rural microcredit funds in Mazandaran province, out of whom 260 women were sampled based on Krejcie and Morgan’s table. The main research instrument was a self-constructed questionnaire whose face and content validity were confirmed by a panel of experts. Also, average variance extracted (AVE) and composite reliability (CR) supported the convergent validity and the reliability of the instrument, respectively. Data were analyzed by structural equation modeling using the partial least squares technique in the Smart PLS3 software package. Finding- Based on the results, the sustainable businesses of rural women who are members of rural microcredit funds were positively and significantly affected by the infrastructure, educational-skill, policymaking, economic, and environmental-geographical factors (with coefficients of 0.412, 0.219, 0.175, 0.165, and 0.137, respectively) at the 99% confidence level and by personality and attitude (0.183 and 0.162, respectively) at the 95% confidence level. These factors captured 92.3 percent of the variance in sustainable businesses. Research Limitations- The dispersion of microcredit funds across the counties and the difficulty of identifying entrepreneurs in them, which would constitute the statistical population, were the main limitations and challenges of the research. Practical Implication: The most important approaches to developing sustainable businesses among rural women include identifying motivated entrepreneur women, providing adequate facilities, raw materials, and inputs, creating job opportunities for small home jobs in villages to motivate women businesses, promoting communication between rural women and successful entrepreneurs, arranging visits of successful businesses, holding short-term applied skill development courses, and creating proper conditions for the use of the Internet and cyberspace for marketing their products. Originality/Value- Based on the results, various factors significantly influence sustainable businesses of women who are members of rural microcredit funds. Therefore, organizations and officials can contribute to the development of women’s businesses in rural areas through supporting the women by material and spiritual motivations, encouraging them, and reinforcing their commitment and responsibility.