Farming, the Environment and Entrepreneurship in the Shropshire Hills 1997-2009

Graham Tate

No 159399, 2012 Eighth AFMA Congress, November 25-29, 2012, Nairobi, Kenya from African Farm Management Association (AFMA)

Abstract: The theme of this paper is the impact of participation in an environmental scheme on the host SME and the measurement of other entrepreneurial activity associated with the same SMEs. The following work objectives were adopted: To examine a representative sub sample of these SME participants and non-participants in the Shropshire Hills Environmentally Sensitive Area (SHESA) and to conduct a longitudinal study over the 23 year period 1986 to 2009 of farming and enterprise in the families concerned. Busenitz, Gomez and Spencer (2000) inform the study in their conceptual framework, relating the institutional perspective of entrepreneurship (regulatory, cognitive and normative) with the sample taken for this research. The conceptual framework of McElwee (2008) and the earlier work of Carter (1998) are applied to classify the actions of the farmer SMEs with relation to their entrepreneurial activities. A longitudinal study of a stratified random sample of rural SMEs in the Shropshire Hills was undertaken in 1997 with 43 face to face interviews. A telephone survey of the same sample was carried out in 2008. Four face to face interviews with farmer SMEs were carried out in 2009. The evidence shows that the participants in the environmental scheme farmed more intensively than the non-participant group. Participation in the environmental scheme did not appear to be an aspect of or to enhance farmers’ entrepreneurial tendencies. The work has implications for agencies involved with increasing entrepreneurial capacity and promoting responsible business behaviour and corporate social responsibility in SMEs and with farmers and consultants.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Environmental Economics and Policy; Farm Management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17
Date: 2012-11
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:afma12:159399

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.159399

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