مطالب

Purpose - Today, tourism is mentioned as a suitable approach for socio-economic and physical development in rural areas. Therefore, rural areas have capabilities and potentials in terms of tourist attractions; however, not all areas have the same capabilities for development. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the ecological potential of the study area and to find the relationship and alignment between tourism capacity and ecological potential in rural areas of Mashhad tourism sphere of influence. Design/methodology/approach - The present theoretical study was conducted with applied purposes using the descriptive-analytical method. GIS and SPSS software and CoCoSo multi-criteria decision-making model were used to analyze the data. Findings- According to research findings the most influential indicator was the distance to tourism water resources and the least influential indicator was the distance to fault. Therefore, the highest ecological potential belongs to the foothill villages of the study area. Also, in terms of tourism capacity, the most effective factors have been the natural attractions of the village and its suburbs and the quality of village road. Original/value - On this basis, the highest tourism potentials belong to villages of Pivehzhan, Virani, and Radkan, respectively. According to the results of the study there is a significant positive relationship between ecological potential of the studied villages and their tourism capacity and there is no relationship between the number of tourists and ecological potential of the studied villages.

Purpose - Having an appropriate and integrated entrepreneurial ecosystem in rural areas largely guarantees the sustainability of rural businesses. Therefore, this study was conducted with the purpose of classification of the rural regions of Haraz plain watershed in terms of entrepreneurial ecosystem. Design/methodology/approach - This is a descriptive study that was done using a survey. The questionnaire was the key instrument for gathering data. The study samples were 182 pluriactive rice farmers and 50 rural experts. Findings - The results showed that the studied regions are in an inappropriate situation in term of rural entrepreneurship ecosystem. Relative assessment using Shannon's entropy showed support component ranked at the highest level by a large difference compared to other components. The financial component ranked at the lowest level in comparison with other components. The results using the ORESTE and hierarchical cluster analysis techniques showed that Nour and Babolsar regions are the most appropriate regions in term of the rural entrepreneurship ecosystem for rural business development, respectively. Research implications/limitations - The improvement of REEs in the six regions should be seriously considered and pursued by policy makers. At the same time according to this research and creating mental ideas for the authors, it is suggested that researchers study the REE and introduce the types of rural businesses appropriate to the situation of the EE in all region of the world; the subject that is not covered in this article. In addition, the method, model, and strategy used in this study provide an appropriate pattern for future researches in entrepreneurial activities development in different regions of the world.