Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is a vital rural economic development strategy. There are several reasons for the increasing interest in entrepreneurship especially in rural regions and communities.

• Traditional approaches to recruitment and retention are just not working for most places, and leaders are looking for viable alternatives.
• There is a growing body of evidence on the critical role that entrepreneurs and small businesses play in driving local and national economies.
• The structure of rural economies is essentially composed of small enterprises, which are responsible for most of the job growth and the innovation. Moreover, small businesses represent an appropriate scale of activity for most rural economies.

RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship

The RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship is the focal point for efforts to stimulate and support private and public entrepreneurship development in communities throughout rural America. The Center, located jointly in North Carolina, Nebraska, and Missouri, conducts practice-driven research, evaluation of model practices and trainings for community and regional leaders, and facilitates shared learning among practitioners and policy makers.

Created in 2001 with founding support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and RUPRI, the Center is an outgrowth of the Rural Entrepreneurship Initiative (REI) supported by the Kauffman Foundation, the National Rural Development Partnership, Partners for Rural America, and the Nebraska Community Foundation.

The Center’s mission - to enable every rural resident to achieve his or her full entrepreneurial potential - is achieved by collaborating with individuals and organizations engaged in the study, practice and policy of rural entrepreneurship. Working with economic development practitioners and researchers, the Center conducts practice-driven research and evaluation that serves as the basis for developing insights into model practices and other learning. The Center is committed to connecting economic development practitioners and policy makers across rural America to the resources needed to energize entrepreneurs and to implement entrepreneurship as a core rural economic development strategy.

www.energizingentrepreneurs.org