Ahmad Yaghoubi Farani

This study investigates how prior knowledge relates to entrepreneurial alertness and, in turn, to opportunity recognition among rural women operating in sustainable tourism. Focusing on an understudied context, we examine 200 female entrepreneurs from the Avroman region of Kermanshah Province, Iran. Using a cross-sectional survey with validated scales and applying partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), we test the relationships among the focal constructs. Results indicate that prior knowledge is positively associated with entrepreneurial alertness and that entrepreneurial alertness strongly predicts opportunity recognition. Mediation analysis further shows that entrepreneurial alertness fully mediates the effect of prior knowledge on opportunity recognition. These findings, consistent with alertness and absorptive-capacity perspectives, clarify how domain-specific experience shapes cognitive scanning and interpretation processes that support opportunity recognition in resource-constrained rural settings. The study contributes by contextualizing these cognitive mechanisms within a developing country and gendered rural tourism setting, showing how women’s knowledge-based alertness supports the creation of sustainable tourism opportunities. The findings offer practical implications for rural tourism development, including strengthening women’s domain-specific knowledge, enhancing their alertness skills, and improving access to local market information and support systems that enable opportunity recognition in rural tourism.

This research aimed to explore the effect of environmental sustainability and entrepreneurial orientations on the performance of greenhouses in Iran. It is a sort of descriptive-correlational research conducted by the survey methodology. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire whose validity was checked by a panel of entrepreneurship and environment experts, and its reliability was estimated by conducting a pilot study and calculating Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.88–0.91). The statistical population was composed of all greenhouse units in Mahallat County in Markazi province, Iran (N = 405). The sample size was determined to be 197 greenhouses by Krejcie and Morgan’s table. The independent variables included environmental sustainability orientations (including the dimensions of environmental knowledge and awareness, practices, and commitment) and entrepreneurial orientation of greenhouse managers (including the dimensions of innovation, proactiveness, and risk-taking), and the dependent variable was the performance of greenhouses (including the dimensions of increasing customers, increasing sales, and increasing profitability). The results of structural equation modeling showed that the dimensions of environmental sustainability orientations and entrepreneurial orientations of the greenhouse managers were decisive factors in the performance dimensions of the greenhouses. Furthermore, the entrepreneurial orientations had a positive and significant effect on the environmental sustainability orientations.

Despite growing research on the significance of transformational leadership as a key contextual factor that determines innovative behavior, recent studies have not investigated the psychological mechanisms that link transformational leadership to employees’ innovative behavior thoroughly. Thus, the main purpose of this study was to examine the mediating role the four dimensions of psychological capital—self-efficacy, hope, resilience, and optimism—play in the relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ innovative work behavior. Data from 178 Iranian agriculture experts were collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicated that transformational leadership was related to employees’ innovative work behavior directly and positively. Furthermore, the results showed that hope and self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship. This study fills a gap in the literature by clarifying the way the dimensions of psychological capital influence transformational leadership’s positive relationship to employees’ innovative work behavior in the public sector of developing countries. The results imply that to be innovatively effective, organizations need to manage both employees’ contextual (transformational leadership) and psychological (psychological capital) resources to enhance their innovative work behavior. The theoretical and practical implications were further discussed.

Since 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis has caused a great deal of social and economic damages to micro and small-scale enterprises (MSEs). This research examined the most common damages of this crisis in active and inactive rural MSEs and also assessed different kind of responses the managers and owners of theses MSEs have received dealing with these damages. The sample population of this study consisted of all managers of 72 active and 38 closed rural MSEs in the Dastjerd village, Hamedan, Iran. These MSEs were mainly garment small factories. This research utilized a mixed approach (quantitative-qualitative) to study the research objectives in depth. First, in qualitative part, semi-constructed interviews and field visits were done. Then, using quantitative, results of the qualitative section, previous studies and the existing literature, a researcher-made questionnaire was created. Based on qualitative part information through interviews, damages of rural MSEs during COVID-19 pandemic were categorized into three classes, including damages related to production, and financial and marketing issues. Also, two categories of managers' responses that could be labeled as passive and adaptive behavior were identified. Findings showed that active rural MSEs have taken more adaptive measures and tried to find appropriate ways to reduce or overcome damages. Active MSEs were mainly owned and managed collaboratively by more literate and experienced managers. Also results revealed that rural MSEs' managers reacted to different kinds of damages based on their ability, knowledge, and experience. Based on research results, managers' knowledge and skills can help them find more adaptive solutions to keep the firms stable and overcome damages. It can be concluded that COVID-19 pandemic has a great impact on rural MSEs and they need more financial support and managerial advice to overcome this kind of crisis situation.

The present study aimed at description of the economic, social, and political structure of the poverty in Shamshir village using an exploratory mixed methods' approach. To do so, qualitative methodologies were conducted among 30 residents of Shamshir village using purposive theoretical sampling. Also, an additional quantitative investigation was carried out among 327 villagers based on random sampling method. The qualitative phase was performed applying observation, unstructured interview, note‐taking, and focus groups while quantitative data were collected by the questionnaire. The findings of the research indicated the importance of economic, social, and political structures in respondents' poverty status of the Shamshir Village; where, the social structure played a greater role. In more detail, the governmental support, private companies, cooperatives, and governmental economic policies were assumed as the factors which could reduce the poverty in Shamshir village.

There is an increasing concern over the environmental degradation caused by agricultural activities especially in developing countries which mostly linked to farmer’s behavior. Thus, this study aimed to model the responsible attitude and behavior of Iranian farmers in respect to environment. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used as a basis for identification of the main determinants of the farmers’ responsible environmental behavior. A survey of 400 farmers in the Hamedan Province, selected through a multistage stratified random sampling method. Data was gathered using a questionnaire which its validity and reliability were confirmed by a panel of agricultural and environmental experts and calculated Cronbach’s alpha (0.65 ≤ α ≤ 0.80), respectively. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate the strength of relationship between the constructs and test the overall model fit. Results of study showed that “using animal manure in the farms” was the most important behavior which farmers are responsibly doing to respect their environment but their least attention is given to “disposing cans and bottles after spraying.” Also, the fitness indices of the model revealed that the TPB partially supported the farmers’ responsible environmental behavior as perceived behavioral control and environmental attitude positively influenced the farmers’ responsible environmental behavior but there was not observed any significant influence by subjective norm. Among the additional incorporated constructs, environmental awareness, ethical commitment, and environmental concern significantly had a positive influence on farmers’ behavior by mediating role of the environmental attitude. The inclusion of new constructs in the TPB model was supported through improving the predictive power of the modified model in predicting farmers’ responsible environmental behavior.

The main purpose of this research was to investigate those factors influencing the entrepreneurial behaviour of agriculture students who were members of entrepreneurship learning and training groups in virtual ‎communication networks. In doing this, a conceptual model was developed to examine the effects of characteristics of entrepreneurship virtual social networks and the degree of participation in these networks through entrepreneurial thinking and decision on entrepreneurial behaviour. The study population of ‎this descriptive-correlational research was made up of 180 members of virtual social groups exchanging knowledge of entrepreneurship in ‎WhatsApp and Viber networks. A total of 126 usable questionnaires were collected. Results indicated that participation in virtual social networks ‎had both direct and indirect effects – through ‎entrepreneurial thinking and decisions – on entrepreneurial behaviour. ‎However, characteristics of ‎‎entrepreneurship ‎virtual networks had only indirect effect on entrepreneurial ‎behaviour ‎via entrepreneurial thinking. The study highlights certain implications for policymakers, (potential) entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship support organizations, researchers and underlines the potential of virtual social networking for promoting entrepreneurship.

Purpose: This purpose of this paper, drawing on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), is to develop an integrated model of entrepreneurial career intentions incorporating the role of motivational factors along with entrepreneurial knowledge. Specifically, this study proposes the existence of a relationship between entrepreneurial knowledge and digital entrepreneurial intentions and asserts that this relation is mediated by the motivational factors. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from a sample of 150 computer sciences students from four public Iranian universities using a questionnaire. Findings: Results indicated that the two motivational factors (namely, attitudes towards digital entrepreneurship and perceived behavioural control) significantly relate to digital entrepreneurial intentions. In addition, entrepreneurial knowledge indicates indirect effects on intentions via these two motivational factors. Practical implications: The results of this study have clear implications for both educators and policymakers. Originality/value: The study helps to understand the role of entrepreneurial knowledge in shaping digital entrepreneurial intentions through developing an integrated intention model based on the TPB. The results also indicate that the TPB fully accounts for the indirect effects of entrepreneurial knowledge.

Many research papers in the field of entrepreneurship have gained from a positivistic analytical approach, both in epistemology and methodology. Also there are very limited enquires concerning entrepreneurship in rural areas, or rural entrepreneurship in a new way. Through this paper, using social constructionism as a big paradigm, Antony Giddens's Structuration Theory and Arturo Escobar's Three Component Theory in development deployment, we try to present an explanation of rural entrepreneurship and multifunctional agriculture, as two main discourses in rural regions. The main claim is that it is necessary to shift from positivistic and hegemonic discourse of rural entrepreneurship to socially constructed discourse of agriculture's multifunctionality, through an analytical reversion of Escobar's theory, and using Structuration Theory as a theoretical context.