Socio-cultural factors and youth entrepreneurship in rural regions

Abstract Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate the impact of two important socio-cultural factors on the level of the entrepreneurial activity of young individuals in rural regions. Design/methodology/approach: Our empirical study is based on a sample collected from an adult population survey, and analyzed using a logit model that controls for territorial and aging sources of heterogeneity. Our theoretical framework is anchored on a contingency perspective that emphasizes the unique influences of the contextual environment in driving entrepreneurial behavior. Findings: The main findings of our study is that in Spain the likelihood of being entrepreneurially active is no different for young and old individuals, and between rural and urban regions. Surprisingly, unlike shown in most studies, entrepreneurial role models do not have any effect on the entrepreneurship by young individuals in rural regions of Spain, while the negative impact of fear of failure in the entrepreneurship on young individuals in rural regions is much higher compared to the rest of the population. Originality/value: Our findings reveal that the context (regional) has a more significant impact on entrepreneurship for some segments (younger individuals) of the population than for others.