Building and Developing the Entrepreneurial Potential of Rural Areas

The entrepreneurial potential of rural areas provides the necessary conditions for creating ‘growth points’ even in the most isolated rural settlements, which explains the urgency of this research. The research purpose is to study the entrepreneurial potential of ecovillages and develop the guidelines for generating the entrepreneurial potential in rural areas. In the course of research, the authors applied the monographic and logical methods, the methods of analysis, synthesis, analogy, survey, comparison, and content analysis. The scientific novelty of the work consists in 1) conducting a comparative analysis of the entrepreneurial potential of ecovillages, which has allowed identifying its specific features depending on the conditions of its formation and development, and 2) identifying the areas of entrepreneurial potential development taking into account personal advancement of entrepreneurs and state support measures for entrepreneurship. We found that the ecovillages under analysis are developing in the mainstream of trends typical for ecovillages. The rural residents are engaged in traditional activities, such as rural tourism, agriculture, arts and crafts, food processing, conservation and storage. The presence of creative entrepreneurs in ecovillages contributes to the formation of special zones for the entrepreneurial potential development in rural areas. Additionally, we defined the entrepreneurial potential and the interest of ecovillage residents in the entrepreneurial activity, which has helped to identify the areas for entrepreneurial potential development in rural settlements.