mojgan khoshmaram

Although few studies have been conducted regarding the entrepreneurial mindset of students in the higher education system, most of them have tried to explain the entrepreneurial mindset of students based on the approach of entrepreneurial traits. Considering that the results of these studies are weak and unreliable for predicting entrepreneurial mindset, Therefore, in the present study, using the cognitive approach to evaluate the role of (formal-informal) entrepreneurial education in the development of entrepreneurial mindsets among the students of the Iranian higher education system. The statistical population of the research included all students of the Iranian higher education system, 436 of whom were selected for the study. The research tool was a standard questionnaire whose validity was checked by a group of experts and its construct validity and reliability were checked by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient and composite reliability. The findings of the research showed that the state of entrepreneurial elaborating and implementing mindsets of the respondents was not at a favorable level. The results of structural equation modeling showed that the latent variable of non-formal entrepreneurship education had a positive and significant effect on the entrepreneurial elaborating and implementing mindsets of Iranian students. Also, the positive and significant effect of the latent variable of formal entrepreneurship education on the entrepreneurial elaborating mindset was confirmed, but its significant effect on the entrepreneurial implementing mindset of students in Iran's higher education system was not supported. According to the results of the research, it is recommended to the planners and policymakers of the higher education system to plan and implement extracurricular entrepreneurship courses in the country's higher education system. Also, in compulsory and optional entrepreneurship curricula in universities and higher education institutions, they pay more attention to practical issues and provide real and suitable conditions - such as holding start-up events - for students to gain experience and entrepreneurship.

Personality traits are so influential in predicting entrepreneurial intentions as researchers believe that personality approach cannot be simply ignored and there are still hidden points in this field. Since social entrepreneurs have distinct personality traits rather than economic entrepreneurs, this study aimed to investigate the effect of personality traits on the intention of social entrepreneurship among food business owners in Ilam province. The statistical population consisted of 1208 food business owners in Ilam province that by using the table of Krejci and Morgan (1980) 415 of whom were selected by stratified random sampling with appropriate assignment. The data collection tool was a standard questionnaire whose validity and reliability were confirmed by subject experts and Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The results showed that among the five personality traits of extraversion, openness to experience, neuroticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness, only two traits including openness to experience (β= 0.431, t= 8.92) and conscientiousness (β= 0.102, t= 1.96) had a positive and significant effect on the intention of social entrepreneurship of food business owners of Ilam province. In this regard, managers and business owners should be able to employ employees based on the appropriateness of their personality traits to perform the assigned tasks, with full knowledge of the characteristics and personality traits of individuals.

In recent years, researchers have studied the factors affecting the performance of agricultural businesses and have identified entrepreneurial marketing as one of the new approaches and innovative solutions to maintain the survival and increase the income of this Businesses have introduced. In this regard, the current integrated research (qualitative-quantitative) was conducted with the aim of identifying and classifying the determinants of entrepreneurial marketing among gardeners in Kermanshah city based on the three-pronged model.

In terms of the general paradigm, the present research is of the type of integrated studies (qualitative-quantitative) and in terms of the purpose, it is considered to be of the type of applied studies. In the qualitative part, which was conducted with the aim of identifying and classifying the determinants of entrepreneurial marketing among gardeners in Kermanshah city based on the three-pronged model, the Delphi method was used. The community studied in this section included 16 experienced gardeners and 14 experts and horticultural specialists active in Kermanshah city. In this part of the study, in-depth individual interviews and focused group discussions were used to collect data. In the quantitative part, which was carried out with the aim of validating the entrepreneurial marketing model among gardeners in Kermanshah city, the descriptive-correlation method with the partial least squares approach (Smart PLS) was used. The statistical population in the quantitative part was all the users of the horticulture department of Kermanshah (N=3362) who were selected for the study by using the stratified sampling method and proportional assignment and using the Karjesi and Morgan table. SPSS and Smart PLS software used to analyze the data in two sections of descriptive and inferential statistics.

The results of the Delphi study led to the extraction of 28 items effective on entrepreneurial marketing among gardeners in Kermanshah city, and further, using the three-pronged model, these items were divided into three classes: behavioral factors (9 items), structural factors (7). item) and background factors (12 items) were classified. The results of the quantitative part of the study showed that the status of behavioral and contextual factors among the gardeners of Kermanshah city was lower than the average level, and the status of the structural factor was slightly higher than the average level. Also, the findings of the study indicated that gardeners in Kermanshah had average entrepreneurial marketing skills. Finally, the findings of the structural equation modeling section indicated that about 89% of entrepreneurial marketing changes are explained by the items identified in the research in the form of three-pronged factors (behavioral, structural and contextual).

Improving the state of entrepreneurial marketing among gardeners in Kermanshah requires planning and special attention of officials and planners to behavioral, contextual and structural factors, based on the findings of this study; suggestions have been made to achieve this goal.

Today, entrepreneurship as a driving force of economic development plays a significant role in the development of traditional organizations and companies; In a way that by promoting entrepreneurship in organizations, we can see an increase in creativity, innovation and prosperity and increase their resistance to changes and challenges. In this regard, the present study investigates the role of entrepreneurial management components in organizational entrepreneurship development among agricultural cooperatives in Kermanshah Township. The statistical population of the study included all managers of agricultural cooperatives in Kermanshah Township (N= 176), Using sampling table of Bartlett (2001), 110 of them by stratified random sampling with appropriate assignment for Studies were selected. The research measurement tool was a standard questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by a group of experts and its reliability was confirmed by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient. In order to analyze the data in two sections of descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum) and inferential statistics (multiple regression analysis), SPS sof tware was used. The results showed that the components of entrepreneurial management (growth strategy, strategic orientation, resource orientation, growth culture, reward philosophy and management structure) had a positive and significant effect on organizational entrepreneurship in agricultural cooperatives. Therefore, by improving entrepreneurial management, we can take action to develop organizational entrepreneurship in agricultural cooperatives. In this regard, managers and policy makers of agricultural cooperatives are advised to rethink entrepreneurial strategies, values and beliefs, reward methods and the structure and management style of the organization in an entrepreneurial manner.

Context: 

The low participation rate of women in economic activities has caused the entrepreneurship rate of women to be lower than that of men. Without the economic participation of women in starting SMEs, it will be challenging for developing countries to achieve the 2030 sustainable development goals and reach their full economic and social potential. Recent studies show that the gender difference in the rate of economic participation and entrepreneurship is not only due to the low success rate of female entrepreneurs, but the main reason is that few women are able to start a business. Therefore, try to promote entrepreneurial businesses among rural women is very important. The starting point for launching a business is opportunity recognition, and the process of identifying entrepreneurial opportunities is different for women than for men. Therefore, it is very important to carry out researches with the aim of identifying factors that influence the recognition of entrepreneurial opportunities among women. Considering that in many developing countries, women have less access to financial resources than men, so this is one of the reasons for the low level of economic participation of women. In this regard, the project of microcredit funds for financial support of women in order to start entrepreneurial businesses has been implemented in different countries, including Iran.Object: Now, after many years have passed since the establishment of these funds in Kermanshah province with the aim of financing the rural women of this region to start entrepreneurial businesses, the present study was conducted with the main aim of analyzing factors influencing the recognition of entrepreneurial opportunities among rural women members of microcredit funds in Kermanshah.

This paper in terms of the paradigm, purpose and method of data collection is quantitative research, applied research and field research study. The study population in this study were all women members of microcredit funds in Kermanshah (N = 626) that according to the table of Bartlett et al., 201 of them using stratified random sampling method with proportional assignment Were selected as research samples. The main data collection tool was a questionnaire whose validity and reliability were confirmed using content validity and convergent validity and combined reliability and Cronbach's alpha. SPSS and Smart PLS software were used to analyze the collected data.

Findings of the study showed that entrepreneurship education, social capital and entrepreneurial skills were the effective factors on entrepreneurial opportunities among rural women members of microcredit funds in Kermanshah. According the results About the trainings provided by the microcredit fund, most of the respondents (34.3%) stated that they participated in these trainings once or twice. Also, 35.3% of them stated that they have participated in the training provided by the agricultural extension between 1 and 2 times. In relation to receiving informal entrepreneurial training, as the results of the distribution of respondents in terms of the index of standard deviation distance from the mean show, the majority of respondents (91%) were in the lower and weak middle class. The average opportunity recognition ability of the respondents is 3.41 with a standard deviation of 0.60. Among the dimensions of the ability to recognize the opportunity, creating innovative solutions from the opportunity had a higher average (3.51) than other dimensions. Also, the findings of the study indicated that the average entrepreneurial skills of rural women members of the fund are 3.15 with a standard deviation of 0.63. As the findings, more than half of the respondents (56.7 percent) were in the lower middle class in terms of entrepreneurial skills. Overall the results of the study showed that rural women members of microcredit funds in Kermanshah are at an average level in terms of the ability to recognize entrepreneurial opportunities. Also findings of the study showed that entrepreneurship education, social capital and entrepreneurial skills were the effective factors on entrepreneurial opportunities among rural women members of microcredit funds in Kermanshah.

The results of the present study indicated that, in addition to the direct effect, entrepreneurial education has an indirect effect through social capital on the recognition of entrepreneurial opportunities by rural women who are members of microcredit funds in Kermanshah. The results of the present study indicated that entrepreneurial skills have a positive and significant effect on recognizing entrepreneurial opportunities among rural women members of microcredit funds in Kermanshah. Therefore, it can be concluded that by improving entrepreneurial skills, the ability to recognize opportunities among rural women members of microcredit funds can be improved. In fact, entrepreneurial skills such as planning and setting work goals, designing and developing a business plan, financial and accounting issues, analyzing problems and providing solutions help rural women to better address the gaps in the society and in fact to identify entrepreneurial opportunities.

Since the perceived entrepreneurial opportunities are the first and most important step in the entrepreneurship process, therefore, the entrepreneurial opportunity recognition capacity has a unique role in the process of promoting entrepreneurship among students in the higher education system. This study investigates the effect of environmental support on entrepreneurial opportunity recognition capacity with mediating role of entrepreneurial alertness.

The sample consisted of 100 senior undergraduate students in agricultural majors at Ilam University, selected through a stratified random sampling technique. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS version 25 and SmartPLS.

The results showed that the perceived entrepreneurial opportunity capacities among students were moderately low. According to structural equation modeling, the entrepreneurial alertness and environmental support had a positive and significant effect on the entrepreneurial opportunity recognition capacity. Also, the indirect and significant effect of environmental support through entrepreneurial alertness on the entrepreneurial opportunity recognition capacity was confirmed.

According to the research results, it is suggested that agricultural higher education instructor use active teaching and learning methods, such as idea generation, experimental and service learning, team and practical work, critical thinking and problem solving in agricultural education.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of psychological empowerment dimensions on entrepreneurial behavior among rural women in Marvdasht County. Statistical population consisted of all active women (15 to 65 years) in rural area of Marvdasht County, that using Bartlett et al.’s sampling table, 227 of them were selected as the sample using the multistage cluster sampling method (n=227). The main instrument in this study was standard questionnaire which its validity were confirmed by the panel of experts and its reliability was established by Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. Data were analyzed by SPSSwin26 and SmartPLSwin3 softwares in two parts of descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that the status of entrepreneurial behavior among rural women in Marvdasht County was at the moderate (3) Level. The results of structural equation modeling showed that the sense of competence, Meaning and impact had a positive and significant effect on the entrepreneurial behavior among rural women in Marvdasht County, while the effect of sense of self-determination on entrepreneurial behavior among rural women in Marvdasht County was not confirmed. In addition, the results showed that the psychological empowerment dimensions were able to explain about 46% of the variance changes in entrepreneurial behavior among rural women in Marvdasht County. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of this study were discussed to help researchers and policy makers.

Entrepreneurship capacities development among students in higher education relies on individuals’ capacity to recognize opportunities; because the opportunity recognition is the first step in the process of developing entrepreneurship. Since the perceived entrepreneurial opportunities are the first and most important step in the entrepreneurship process, this study investigates the entrepreneurial opportunity recognition capacity among agriculture students at Ilam University. The sample consisted of 100 senior undergraduate students in agricultural majors at Ilam University, Illam province, Iran, selected through a stratified random sampling technique. The results showed that the perceived entrepreneurial opportunity capacity among students were moderately low. According to structural equation modeling, the entrepreneurial alertness had a positive and significant effect on the entrepreneurial opportunity recognition capacity. Therefore, the findings of this study revealed the importance of the entrepreneurial alertness for predicting the ability to identify entrepreneurial opportunities among higher education students.

Abstract Entrepreneurial marketing as a social concept is the common point of the two fields of marketing and entrepreneurship and has different dimensions. Regarding the importance of recognizing the dimensions of marketing in order to provide the contexts for growth and development of the business, the main purpose of this article, which is based on reviewing the theoretical and empirical literature related to the subject, was to analyze and show the most important dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing. According to the research results, the most important dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing include seven items: risk-taking, being a pioneer, opportunity-oriented, value creation, innovation, customer orientation and resource use.It is also recommended that; According the successful experiences of other countries, holding courses and conferences to introduce the importance of entrepreneurial marketing to business managers, developing the insurance industry, creating marketing and entrepreneurship courses in universities, providing support services to entrepreneurs and holding festivals and exhibitions of direct supply of manufactured products to help develop entrepreneurial marketing as well as business development.

Climate change is one of the most important challenges of the current century, affecting agriculture more than other ones, an entrepreneur farmer perceives environmental challenges and changes as an opportunity. In this regard, this study aims to analyze the effects of climate change dimensions on Entrepreneurial Opportunities Recognition(EOR) intheagricultural sector of Kermanshah Province, Iran. The statistical population of the study included all entrepreneurs of the agricultural sector in Kermanshah Province, with 102 of them being selected through a simple randomization method. A researcher-made questionnaire was used as the main tool of data collection whose validity and reliability were confirmed by a panel of experts and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and Kuder and Richardson formulas. The findings indicated that respondents had correctly and successfully identified existing entrepreneurial opportunities in the agricultural sector since they examined the proportion and desirability of these opportunities at a high level of possibility. Results also showed that more than half of the respondents perceived climate changes at a high level and took them into account for initiating their business. According to the results of regression analysis, climate changes dimensions (drought, dust, and temperature rise) account for 41% of variance changes in EOR in the agricultural sector of Kermanshah Province. Our findings have implications to help policymakers, planners, and managers in improving entrepreneurial opportunities and recognizing farmers’ capability.

The main purpose of this study was to identifying determinants of psychological empowerment and provides solutions among women of rural area in Marvdasht Township. Statistical population consisted of all active women (15 to 65 years) in rural area in Marvdasht Township, that using Bartlett et al. (2001)’s sampling table, 227 of them were selected as the sample using the multistage cluster sampling method (n=227). The main instrument in this study was questionnaire which its validity were confirmed by the panel of experts and construct validity and its reliability was established by Cronbach's Alpha coefficient and composite reliability. Data were analyzed by SPSSwin25 and SmartPLS3 softwares in two parts of descriptive and inferential statistics. Based on the results of structural equation modeling the social factors, economic factors and institutional factors had a positive and significant effect on the psychological empowerment among women of rural areas of Marvdasht Township. Finally, several solutions such as "Providing loans and credits to rural women", "Launching funds and institutions aimed at supporting rural women" and "raising the level of knowledge and skills of rural women" to improve the psychological empowerment among women of rural areas of Marvdasht Township was presented.

Although agriculture has a major role in economy, in general, and employment opportunities for unemployed population, in particular, limited ability of individuals to recognize entrepreneurial opportunities in agriculture has reduced the share of agriculture in employment. Therefore, the enhancement of opportunity recognition skills among individuals in the agriculture sector is believed to solve unemployment challenges. Social capital is a rich source of information that permits the individuals to identify different combinations of the means-ends in the creation of new products or services for a particular market. Thus, this study sought to explore the role of social capital components in agricultural entrepreneurial opportunity recognition in Kermanshah province. The statistical population of this study consisted of all agricultural entrepreneurs in Kermanshah province (N=136), 102 of them were selected as the sample of the study based on Krejcie and Morgan’s sampling table and the use of a proportional stratified sampling method. The main instrument in this study was a questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by a panel of experts; its average variance was extracted, and its discriminant validity and reliability coefficient was established by using a Cronbach's alpha as well as the composite reliability index. Data were analyzed by SPSSV23 and Smart PLS softwares. The result of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) revealed that the social capital components (strong ties and weak ties) were the main predictors of opportunity recognition among agricultural entrepreneurs in Kermanshah province. Findings of this study carry important implications for agricultural policy makers and educators aiming to foster greater inclusion and cohesion, and to increase transparency and accountability, in order to develop the recognition and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities in the process of promoting agricultural entrepreneurship.

Although agriculture is an important sector in economy in general and providing employment opportunities in particular, individuals’ limited ability to recognize entrepreneurial opportunities in agriculture has reduced the share of agriculture in employment. Therefore, the promotion of opportunity recognition skills in agriculture can solve unemployment challenges. In this regard, this qualitative study attempted to present a model for agricultural entrepreneurial opportunity recognition using NVivo software. The study participators consisted of all agricultural entrepreneurs in Kermanshah Province. Of them, 19 cases of agricultural entrepreneurs were selected by theoretical sampling. Results revealed that the major components of our proposed model in opportunity recognition included social capital, human capital, environmental support, psychological characteristics, alertness, and personal and environmental turbulence. Results of this study have practical implications for agricultural policy makers, science and technology parks, agricultural organization, entrepreneurship education trainers, and higher agricultural education system. Moreover, the results have practical significance towards resistive economy.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the role of Knowledge Management (KM) in Organizational Entrepreneurship (OE) among agriculture extension workers at Kermanshah Township, Iran. The statistical population in this study consisted of all agriculture extension workers of Jihad-e-Agriculture management and centers of agricultural services at Kermanshah Township (N=143), of whom 129 were available and provided data for this study. The main instrument in this study was a questionnaire which its validity was confirmed by the panel of experts and its reliability was established by Cronbach's Alpha coefficient (α>0.70). Data was analyzed by SPSSwin21 software in two parts of descriptive (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential (correlation and regression analysis) statistics. Based on the results of enter multiple regression, KM components were the main predictors of OE among agriculture extension workers. The findings of this study have applications for Jihad-e-Agriculture management and centers of agricultural services in order to promoting OE among agriculture extension workers in Iran.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting the attitude of agricultural extension experts towards organic farming in the Kermanshah Township. Statistical population in this study consisted of all agriculture extension experts of the Jihade- Keshavarzi management and centres of agricultural services in the Kermanshah Township (N=148), 123 of whom were selected as research samples using random simple sampling method. The main instrument in this study was a questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability was established by Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. The data was analyzed by using the SPSSWin20 software. The results showed that the attitude of the majority (57 percent) of agricultural extension experts towards organic farming in the Kermanshah Township was at the neutral level. The findings of mean comparison showed that there were significant differences between the attitudes of agricultural extension experts towards organic farming in the Kermanshah Township based on their field of study. In addition, the results of multiple regression analysis indicated that about 35 percent of the attitudes of agricultural extension experts towards organic farming is explained by the study of scientific research journal and using internet. The results of this study have applications for managers of the Jihad-e-Keshavarzi and centers of agricultural services in order to improve the attitudes of agricultural extension experts towards organic farming.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the role of social capital in the academic achievement of agriculture students at Razi University. The Statistical population of this study consisted of all seniors agricultural students at Razi University (N= 257), 154 samples were selected on the basis of the proportionate stratified sampling method. The main instrument in this study was a questionnaire which its validity was confirmed by the panelof experts and its reliability was established by Cronbach's Alphacoefficient (α>0. 70). For analyzing data in two parts of descriptive (frequency, percent, mean and standard deviation) and inferential (mean comparison, correlation analysis and path analysis) statistics SPSS and LISREL software were used. The results of correlation analysis showed that there was positive and significantly correlation between social capital and academic achievement (P< 0. 01). Also, results of path analysis indicated that social capital had a positive and significant effect on students’ academic achievement (γ= 0. 83, t= 11. 44, R2= 0. 69). Results of this study can have practical implications concerning academic achievement of agricultural students for higher agricultural education managers, planners and educators.