Entrepreneurial Aspirations of South Dakota Commodity Crop Producers

Abdelrahim Abulbasher (), Jessica D. Ulrich-Schad, Deepthi Kolady, Tong Wang and David Clay
Additional contact information
Abdelrahim Abulbasher: Department of Social Sciences, Qatar University, Doha P.O. Box 2713, Qatar
Jessica D. Ulrich-Schad: Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA
Deepthi Kolady: Department of Agricultural Economics, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA
Tong Wang: Department of Agricultural Economics, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA
David Clay: Department of Agronomy, Horticulture and Plant Science, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007, USA

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 16, 1-17

Abstract: A growing body of research has examined farmers’ increasing economic challenges in the United States and the new models adopted to help them increase profit, remain in business, and achieve agricultural sustainability. However, the entrepreneurial strategies that Western Corn ( Zea mays ) Belt farmers use to overcome economic challenges and achieve agricultural sustainability remain understudied. The model system used in this study was eastern South Dakota, and it examined the entrepreneurial aspirations of commodity crop producers using mail and online survey data collected in 2018. Using the diffusion of innovations framework, we investigated how innovation and entrepreneurialism spread among farmers; whether frequent training, building, and using social networks were essential to farmers’ business success; and how age, education level, and farm size relate to their entrepreneurial aspirations. We analyzed these three socio-demographic characteristics of farmers against their adoption of entrepreneurship and engagement in networking and training. Our results show that (1) farmers are looking for ways to adopt entrepreneurship; (2) education and farm size are positively related to the adoption of entrepreneurship; (3) age is negatively related to farmers’ adoption of entrepreneurship, and (4) a larger farm size is associated with farmers’ use of social networks and their participation in training. This study highlights the importance of providing farmers with entrepreneurial training, equipping them with necessary skills, maximizing their use of social networks and opportunities, and encouraging strategic planning and best management practices.

Keywords: crop producers; entrepreneurship; South Dakota farmers; training; social networks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/6839/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/6839/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:16:p:6839-:d:1453210

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().