Business models et entrepreneuriat en milieu rural : leçons d’une pandémie

Abstract EN

The state of the art of entrepreneurship, classic and social, reflects a divergence of opinion and a multitude of appreciations leading to a lack of consensus among researchers.

In this paper, we are interested in rural entrepreneurial initiatives comparable to Social Business.

We seek to understand their cross-linking as well as the configuration of their Business Models while paying attention to the success factors that condition their existence.

Therefore, it seemed to us that a qualitative exploratory study was essential in order to understand the specificity of the BMs of these income-generating activities and their success factors in rural areas.

The results show the conventions, stakeholders, resources, the equation of economic profit and the equation of social profit as major components in the income generating activities’ Business Models.

These components are configured according to the type of financing granted to achieve a dual economic and social objective.

Finally, the crisis caused by the pandemic Covid-19 hammered on the need to rethink the social business models.

Indeed, the ecosystem of rural entrepreneurship needs a better encouraging of the collaborations between stakeholders, public authorities and research actors in order to strengthen the resilience of the structures created and help spread their impact