This years RSA conference is in Lugano from 3rd-6th June. I will be presenting a paper on the links between counterurbanisation and entrepreneurial emergence. Our findings identify that the sources of new businesses in rural areas often arise from outside of the local area with incomers well placed to spot new business opportunities and capitalise on a range of rural assets. Bringing combinations of external networks and linking these to local resources, they are effectively fulfilling the traditional arbitrage role of entrepreneurs. Therefore, when considering how to promote rural economies, policy-makers need to ensure that they are creating the right opportunities for people in the locality AND presenting the right outward representation to attract “would-be” entrepreneurs to the region.
The paper can be downloaded here: Identifying entrepreneurial counterurbanisers RSA Lugano 2018
This is a collaboration with Leanne Townsend, James Hutton Institute, Bob Newbery, Newcastle Business School and Zografia Bika, Norwich Business School and we are planning new research to deepen our understanding of alternative rural entrepreneurship trajectories in rural Britain.