Literature review and segmentation framework (Work package 2) 

Introduction

Work package 2 examined the concept of entrepreneurship with particular reference to farmers. In order to determine what constituted entrepreneurship in agriculture, the following objectives were addressed:

(a) To carry out a review of the relevant literature and, subsequently,

(b) to develop a segmentation framework (SF) which categorised farmers in a standard way by different criteria, in order to provide a gap analysis of the core skills which farmers have and the skills and support which they need in order to become more entrepreneurially successful. The farmers themselves were invited to comment on their own skill set.

In detail, the objectives of the work package were:

· To outline the academic literature on farm entrepreneurship

· To achieve a common understanding of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial activity in relation to farmers

· To identify the relevant entrepreneurial skills necessary in farming, and to identify the ways in which farmers develop effective entrepreneurial strategies

· To describe the way in which segmentation frameworks can be used to provide a coherent understanding of the entrepreneurial farming business.

This chapter has three aims. First, it describes the aims and methodology of the literature review. Second, it discusses the most important outcomes and conclusions of the literature review, augmented into recommendations for the pilot stage. Third, it describes the function and design of the segmentation framework as well as describing how the segmentation framework was utilised for the main stage interviews.

Objectives of the Literature Review

The aim of the literature review was to consider the models, methodologies, techniques and data papers published on the subject of farmers’ skills and entrepreneurial capacity in an attempt to determine which (if any) theoretical and methodological trends and themes have emerged. In addition, the key themes and foci of all publications were analysed and grouped by distinctive criteria.

The literature review dealt with an important question for rural policy – the potential for and implications of farm entrepreneurship and the future of the farm as currently understood .

The literature review provided an account of farm entrepreneurship in the literature. Furthermore, it examined the extent to which policy implications are considered in the entrepreneurship literature and whether published work addresses practical outcomes or has an effect on policy and the everyday life of farmers.

In summary, the objectives of the literature review were as follows:

· To provide a narrative account of farm entrepreneurship based on an analysis of the publication patterns and themes in farm entrepreneurship research, in an attempt to provide initial definitions of farm entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills

· To determine the pressures and barriers facing farmers

· To determine which methodological approaches are used to understand the phenomena of farmer entrepreneurship

· To explore what policy implications are considered in the literature.

Methodology

Little empirical analysis has been undertaken of the content of publications on farm entrepreneurship and farmers’ skills in terms of analysis of the dominant research paradigms utilised and the specific focus of the literature. This review was based on a qualitative examination of the changing foci of interest in farm entrepreneurship and farm skills within a number of publications, rather than as representative of the full body of literature. A secondary challenge consisted in comparing the farm entrepreneurship literature across diverse countries, as this posed both cultural and definitional problems. To resolve this challenge, a generic template was used, as it was deemed to have been successful in an earlier study of entrepreneurship publications undertaken by McElwee and Atherton (2005).