The Challenges of Launching Agricultural Start-Ups From views of Students at Sari University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources

Similar to the industry and services sector, there is now an increasing growth in the development of agricultural startups, and the universities can play a major role in creating and growing these types of new businesses due to their educational and research structure. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to identify the challenges of launching agricultural startups from the students' views. The statistical population of this research was consisted of all agricultural and natural resources' under-graduate and post graduate students of the Sari University in the same area of science(N=593). The sample size was calculated by the Cochran formula (n=210) which by proportional stratified random sampling method, the data was collected. The main research tool was a questionnaire which its facial validity was evaluated using the panel of experts and construct validity was measured by average variance extracted (AVE). Also, the reliability of the instrument was assessed by Cronbach's alpha for the main scale of the questionnaire (above 0.7). Exploratory factor analysis method was used to determine the structural factors and a confirmatory factor analysis method were applied to fit it. According to findings, the challenges of launching agricultural start-ups were classified into three separate groups: economic-market issues, personal-skills as well as administrative-legal affairs. These factors were able to explain 70.30 percent of the total variance. The result of this research can contribute to the universities and higher education centers in agriculture and natural resources to solve the identified challenges in order to improve the capabilities of their students and to create and let the students to enter this type of business.