Factors affecting the success of female and minority rural entrepreneurs and rural economic vitality

Project Director
Stephens, H. M.

Recipient Organization
WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY
886 CHESTNUT RIDGE RD RM 202
MORGANTOWN,WV 26505-2742

Performing Department
(N/A)

Non Technical Summary
Prior research suggests that expanding entrepreneurship or self-employment is a key strategy for promoting economic growth in rural, distressed regions. Furthermore, self-employment rates of women and minorities (especially Blacks) have lagged those of White males in rural areas. This project seeks to understand the factors (or barriers) that support (or deter) women and minority entrepreneurship and translate these findings to help key stakeholders develop policies and programs to support women and minority entrepreneurs. Our objectives include 1) identifying the factors associated with higher shares of women and minority self-employed in rural counties using unique proprietary data; 2) examining the factors associated with the success or failure of women and minority entrepreneurs using confidential firm-level micro data; and 3) translating the research findings into Extension programming to support rural women and minority entrepreneurship and promote broad rural prosperity.

Animal Health Component

(N/A)

Research Effort Categories

Basic

100%

Applied

(N/A)

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
608	6050	3010	100%

Knowledge Area
608 - Community Resource Planning and Development;

Subject Of Investigation
6050 - Communities, areas, and regions;

Field Of Science
3010 - Economics;

Keywords

covid-19

entrepreneurship

rural economic vitality

under-served minorities

women

Goals / Objectives
Identify the factors associated with higher shares of women and minority entrepreneurs at the county level, with a focus on rural areas.Informed by the results from Objective 1), analyze the factors associated with the success or failure (survivability and profitability analysis) of rural women and minority entrepreneurs using firm-level micro-data.Translate the scientific findings under Objectives 1 and 2 into Extension and other outreach educational programming for entrepreneurial support organizations and local officials to build the capacity of rural communities to improve entrepreneurship by women, minorities, and other socially disadvantaged groups in order to promote rural prosperity.

Project Methods
To determine which factors affect self-employment rates and how these factors vary across different groups of entrepreneurs, we will estimate a series of regressions in which the share of self-employment attributable to group g in county c during year t is regressed against a series of county-level factors which affect entrepreneurship.Using establishment-level micro-data combined with data on other local area factors, we will examine the factors that are important to increasing self-employment and success for individual businesses.

Progress 05/15/23 to 05/14/24

Outputs
Target Audience:During the reporting period, our initial analysis was presented to research peers at the Southern Regional Science Association Annual meeting. Changes/Problems:There are no major changes, however, despite the start date of May 15, 2023, in the system, we did not have this set up at the university until mid July, so that is when the actual work on the grant funded research began. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has trained both the post-doctoral researcher and several graduate students on the use of new data and methodologies. The project has also given the post-doctoral researcher experience in managing a project and presenting new types of research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?So far, we have only presented preliminary findings to peer researchers at the Southern Regional Science Association annual meeting. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to finalize the analysis related to goal #1 and move onto the analysis in goal #2. We also plan to begin to develop outreach materials based on our findings so far to begin to address goal #3.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We have completed the initial analysis related to goal #1 and are working to refine the results. Those results have also been presented to peers at the Southern Regional Science Association conference for feedback. We have also submitted an application to the Census Data Center at Penn State University to get access to the firm-level micro-data for goal #2.

Publications