Entrepreneurial Intention among Rural Youth in Moroccan Agricultural Cooperatives: The Future of Rural Entrepreneurship

El Houssain Bouichou, Tahirou Abdoulaye, Khalil Allali, Abdelghani Bouayad and Aziz Fadlaoui
Additional contact information
El Houssain Bouichou: Department of Economic and Social Sciences Applied to Agriculture, Agronomic and Veterinary Institute Hassan II, Madinat Al Irfane, B.P. 6202, Rabat 10101, Morocco
Tahirou Abdoulaye: Social Science and Agribusiness, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), B.P. 320, Bamako 91094, Mali
Khalil Allali: Department of Economic and Social Sciences Applied to Agriculture, Agronomic and Veterinary Institute Hassan II, Madinat Al Irfane, B.P. 6202, Rabat 10101, Morocco
Abdelghani Bouayad: Laboratory for Social Sciences and Economics, Faculty of Economic and Social Legal Sciences, Moulay Ismail University, B.P. 3201 Toulal, Meknes 50000, Morocco
Aziz Fadlaoui: Economics and Sociology and Quality Regional Agricultural Research Center Km 10, Research Unit Management of Natural Resources, Haj Kaddour Road, P.O. Box 578 (VN), Meknes 50000, Morocco

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 16, 1-20

Abstract: Rural entrepreneurship in the developing world has long been hailed as a powerful tool for promoting the socioeconomic integration of young people and the key to avoiding rural depopulation as well as ensuring these areas remain attractive places for rural youth. However, there have been no efforts to investigate the role of collective entrepreneurship in the creation and management of new businesses in Morocco. Furthermore, we build on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to investigate and explain entrepreneurial intention among the rural youth members of agricultural cooperatives, and identify the vulnerabilities and factors that influence the choice or decision-making between permanent membership at the cooperative and an entrepreneurial career. In this case, we apply the cognitive approach to survey rural youth in the Drâa-Tafilalet region of Morocco in 2020. The binary logistic regression analysis technique has been used and applied to build the best model to explain why some rural youth members of the cooperative, but not others, choose to become entrepreneurs. We model how agricultural cooperatives may favor or inhibit the translation of entrepreneurial intention into new venture creation. A random sample size of 130 young people has been selected, from which 54 are intending to start a business and 76 have a negative intention of self-employment. The results of the analysis showed that socio-demographic variables, individual perceptions, previous experience, and the activities of the cooperative were statistically significant and reliable in building the binary logistic regression model. Findings also suggest that the risks of agribusiness and financing constraints have a negative influence on entrepreneurial intentions of the youth and women in agricultural cooperatives.

Keywords: agribusiness; agricultural cooperative; entrepreneurial intention; logistic regression; rural development; youth entrepreneurship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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