مدل معادلات ساختاری

The contribution of rural women to the economy of rural areas and the development of agricultural communities is widely acknowledged. Entrepreneurship development offers a promising solution to empower rural women, enhancing their efficiency and self-sufficiency. By economically empowering rural women, they gain the ability to make independent decisions and improve their household livelihoods. Rural entrepreneurship encompasses various aspects of employment and income generation within rural communities. It predominantly stems from agricultural and indigenous activities within villages. As a collective effort, entrepreneurship significantly impacts a community’s employment opportunities and income levels. Moreover, fostering entrepreneurship leads to long-term economic and social sustainability, enhancing resilience and competitiveness. The present study primarily aimed to identify the determinants of entrepreneurship development within microcredit funds operated by rural women’s cooperatives in Marvdasht County. This research was prompted by the pressing issue of sustainable livelihoods in rural households, which stands as a significant challenge in rural development. Addressing this issue can mitigate adverse outcomes, including rural outmigration. The study specifically focused on rural development within home-based businesses led by women who are members of microcredit funds. A central aspect explored was the mediating role of the business life cycle in this context. Analogous to the life cycle of a living organism, the business life cycle illustrates the stages from inception to decline. At each stage, implementing well-suited strategies can prolong the business’s existence and contribute to its growth and development. The research delved into various factors, including personality traits, the business environment, and government policies. Their impact was rigorously assessed on entrepreneurship development. Based on the findings, practical and policy-oriented solutions were proposed for the study area, aiming to foster sustainable entrepreneurial endeavors among rural women.

This applied research was conducted using a descriptive approach. The research method employed a survey, and the research instrument consisted of a semi-structured questionnaire with both open-ended and closed-ended questions. The validity of the questionnaire was assessed by entrepreneurship experts at Shiraz University, and its reliability was measured by calculating Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The study population was selected from 375-unit home-based businesses that were members of Marvdasht County microcredit funds. The stratified random sampling method with appropriate allocation was conducted in this study. Initially, the population was divided into five distinct categories: greenhouse, processing industries, horticulture, animal husbandry, and aviculture. Subsequently, using the Krejcie and Morgan table, 190 individuals were randomly selected from these categories, ensuring proportional representation within the target population or sampling frame. SPSS26 was utilized for data processing and inference of results. Additionally, the software Amos24 was employed for path analysis results.

Based on Pearson's correlation analysis, there were positive and significant relationships between the business life cycle and the supportive policy, incentive policy, management skills, independence, need for achievement, risk taking, self-directed education, family support, workforce, initial investment, and annual income variables. Moreover, the findings based on Pearson’s correlation showed positive and significant relationships between entrepreneurship development and business lifecycle, supportive policy, incentive policy, management skills, independence, need for achievement, risk taking, self-directed education, family support, education level, workforce, initial investment, and annual income variables. According to the results of the path analysis, the effects of variables, such as the life cycle, incentive policy, management skills, independence, control center, and seeking success were significant on entrepreneurship development, and the greatest impact on the entrepreneurship development variable belonged to the independence variable.

To identify the determinants of entrepreneurship development among rural women who are members of microcredit funds in Marvdasht County, the known research variables were assessed using statistical methods and path analysis. Based on the research findings, women’s independence has the most significant impact on their entrepreneurship development. This underscores the importance of women’s personality traits in business and its subsequent growth. Therefore, it is crucial to pay attention to their individual characteristics, particularly motivating them to take charge of their business destiny. Independence empowers women to make informed decisions about staying in or leaving a business when conditions warrant. To enhance women’s self-esteem and empower them to recognize their true social and economic standing, it is suggested to organize psychological counseling sessions and utilize responsible organizations to conduct motivational classes, group discussions, and awareness campaigns. Furthermore, the results of the path analysis model demonstrate that the business life cycle, a unique feature applicable to all businesses, has a direct impact on individual entrepreneurship development. It is recommended to identify the stages of business life cycles, enabling the implementation of appropriate training at each phase. This approach can foster women’s entrepreneurial activities and prevent premature dissolution, and unintentional abandonment of home-based businesses. Providing straightforward management skills training, counseling women on their economic business environment, facilitating connections among occupational groups to share firsthand experiences, establishing rural entrepreneurship hubs for discovering novel ideas, and fostering entrepreneurship among women are among the proposed strategies.

Creating employment and improving entrepreneurial space processes in rural areas are one of the essentials of rural development program. This study aimed at providing a model for improving rural entrepreneurship development in Shazand County of Markazi province of Iran. The statistical population of the study included 900 rural entrepreneurs in the county. Random sampling method was used to select subjects for the study. According to the Krejcie-Morgan table, a sample of 265 rural entrepreneurs was selected for the survey. The required data were collected through a structured questionnaire, the validity of which was confirmed by university professors and entrepreneurship experts and its reliability was performed by pre-test. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the variables and research structures ranged from 0.71 to 0.918. The relationships between the items and structures were analyzed using SPSS22 and Smart PLS3 statistical software. Then, the relations between educational, economic and institutional factors and the rural entrepreneurship development were investigated in a structural equation method. The results showed that the GOF criterion was 0.389, indicating that the model for improvement of rural entrepreneurship development was suitable. According to the model, respectively, the institutional factor over the economic factor and the educational factor over the institutional factor had the highest factor loadings; in other words, for the development of rural entrepreneurship, the paths indirectly affecting the entrepreneurship development should be considered. The results also showed that all three educational, economic and institutional factors affected the entrepreneurship development, but the economic factor could be considered as one with the most direct impact on the rural entrepreneurship development.

Today, the use of chemical pesticides in the world is considered to be the most effective, fastest and cheapest pest control method. Although, chemical pesticides are essential components of modern agriculture, it is also considered one of the most important sources of environmental pollution and its exposure is one of the most common and serious health-safety hazards faced by farmers. The purpose of this study was to analyze the health-safety behavior on the use of chemical pesticides among farmers of Moghan plain. The statistical population of this study was farmers of water crops in Bilesavar, Parsabad, Germi counties in the years of 2017-2018 (N = 9996). The sample size was determined by multi-stage sampling method and using Kerjesi and Morgan table (1970), (n= 400). The content validity of the research tool was confirmed by panel of faculty members and its reliability was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha. According to the findings, the attitude of the majority of farmers (34%) was relatively positive on the use of chemical pesticides. Also, farmers with a job satisfaction from agriculture, lacking a second job and higher education, had higher health- safety behaviors than using chemical pesticides. Based on the results of the structural equation model, variables of knowledge (the most important variable), attitude and experience of poisoning by chemical pesticides have predicted 88 percent of the changes affecting the health effects of farmers on the use of pesticides.

In today's complex and dynamic environment, development of entrepreneurial orientation is an essential condition to survive and stay organizations competitive that meanwhile, organizational learning plays a key role. Given the importance of the issue, this descriptive- correlative research was conducted to study relationship of organizational learning and entrepreneurial orientation in the governmental organizations. The statistical population of the research consisted of 1004 experts of Organization of Agriculture Jihad in West Azerbaijan Province. A sample of 240 experts was selected using a stratified random sampling method. The standard questionnaires (after adjusting the questions with the related context of the research) were used to collect data. The content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts and the construct validity as well as the composite reliability of the research instrument was obtained by estimating the measurement model and the required modifications. The results supported the research conceptual model, so that, there was a positive and significant relationship between organizational learning and entrepreneurial orientation and organizational learning explained 52 percent of variances of entrepreneurial orientation. Based on the findings, it could be concluded that increasing the organizational learning directly leads to improvement ofexpertts’ entrepreneurial orientation in the Organization of Agriculture Jihad

The main purpose of this study was to identify and analysis of entrepreneurial strategies affecting the performance of agricultural small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The statistical population included 1250 agricultural entrepreneurs in the SMEs in Fars province; by utilizing Cochrane’s formula 138 people were randomly selected. Descriptive and correlation results obtained from processing data by LISREL and SPSS software and also exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis methods, path analysis and structural equation models were studied. Result showed significant correlations between the components of SMEs successful performance and entrepreneurial strategies are there. On the other hand, based on our results, entrepreneurial strategies awareness, entrepreneurial strategies making and SMEs performance have shown positive and significant direct and indirect impacts on the successful performance of agricultural SMEs. These three factors explained 66.84 percent of the total variance. Finally, by applying structural equation modeling, the proposed model of successful performance of agricultural SMEs with appropriate path coefficients has been fitted.

This paper is an attempt to study the contribution of farming systems to rural development in Isfahan province. In order to identify statistical population, first, those villages with different types of farming systems were identified. Second, for each system, villages were selected where at least half of the farmers were member of that system. There are three major farming systems in the province and 300 villages were selected for the study. The total number of indices on two sides was listed and after omission and integration 27 indicators were selected for the two issues of farming systems and rural development. The results of structural equations showed that the most interactions can be observed between rural development indices and farming systems indices in production cooperatives such that the relationship between the majority of indices of the two factors are significant. Peasant systems and common cooperative systems came second and third after the production cooperative with respect to the subject. The estimated Goodness of Fit Index (GFI) for production cooperative systems, family systems and common cooperative systems were 0.989, 0.973 and 0.746 respectively.