Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Disadvantaged Rural Communities

Entrepreneurial opportunities in disadvantaged rural communities offer a path to economic development, reduced poverty, and sustainable growth in areas often overlooked by traditional industries. These communities, though facing challenges such as limited access to resources and infrastructure, have untapped potential. By fostering innovative solutions, entrepreneurs can address pressing issues such as food security, employment, and education, while creating values that benefit both the community and the economy. Supporting rural entrepreneurship through tailored policies, technology access, and capacity-building can empower individuals to take ownership of their future and create resilient, self-sustaining enterprises. Further research may highlight areas overlooked by current support programs. Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Disadvantaged Rural Communities explores the economic, social and environmental sustainability of enterprises in disadvantaged rural contexts. It focuses on identifying and cultivating entrepreneurial opportunities that are economically viable and socially and environmentally responsible, offering a path towards a more inclusive and equitable rural economy.

Dr. Sotiris Apostolopoulos is a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Development at the University of Neapolis (Paphos, Cyprus). He also acts as Coordinator of the Undergraduate Programs in Business Administration & Digital Business of the Department of Economics and Business for the same University. He holds a PhD degree from the School of Management of University of the Peloponnese and two Master’s degrees (MSc) in Healthcare Administration and in Finance as well. He specialises in rural entrepreneurship, European policies and the socio-economic development of the rural areas with emphasis on private and social health enterprises. His research interests focus on local development, European policies, private and social enterprises as well as on innovation. He has many years’ experience working in the management of private companies. He served as Head of Communication and Public Relations of the Marketing Department of the Rehabilitation & Recovery Center “Diaplasis” in Greece and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the largest regional private hospital “City Hospital” of the Peloponnese Region. His research articles have been published in major scientific journals by publishers such as Wiley, Emerald, MDPI, while he has participated in studies that were included and published as book chapters in edited volumes (IGI Global, Eburon, etc.). In parallel, he has taken part through research work in international and European conferences on Economics, Entrepreneurship and Innovation held in Greece, Cyprus, UK, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Montenegro. He has experience in submitting and implementing proposals related to European programmes. Recently, the World Health Organization included in its official database two research papers of Sotiris (co-author), concerning the rural health enterprises during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ivan Paunovic is a Lecturer for Management and Business Administration at the Koblenz University of Applied Sciences. He was previously a postdoctoral researcher at Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and SMEs (CENTIM) and a lecturer at different universities in Germany and Serbia. He obtained his PhD in 2017. from the Singidunum University, Serbia. He is dealing with a wide range of topics in entrepreneurship and innovation, with a specific focus on tourism and wine industries. He is a member of VHB (German Academic Association for Business Research) and AIEST (International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism), and has published in reputable business journals like European Journal of Innovation Management, International Journal of Wine Business Research, Journal of Family Business Management and British Food Journal.

Bobby Macaulay is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Mountain Studies at the University of the Highlands and Islands. With a multidisciplinary background in politics, sustainable development and public health, his research interests centre around the role and activities of community organisations in rural and islands settings. Following the completion of his PhD in rural development in 2019, Dr Macaulay has worked in research roles at the World Health Organization and the charitable sector, prior to assuming his current permanent academic position. Within this research-focused role he also teaches Masters courses on Sustainable Land Use and supervises postgraduate researchers including two PhD students (one as Director of Studies). Dr Macaulay adopts an applied mixed-methods and interdisciplinary approach to collaborative research within rural communities. He coordinates the Community Landownership Academic Network (CLAN) which is leading efforts to promote sustainable, mutually beneficial, non-extractive research practices within community research. As well as having secured over £600k of competitive research funding, Dr Macaulay’s research outputs have won awards at national and international conferences and been published in world-class journals, including Social Science & Medicine and Journal of Rural studies. His external roles include: Committee of the Scottish Land Fund; Executive Committee of the International Small Islands Studies Association; Co-Lead of the Scottish Islands Research Network; UHI Graduate School Committee; and Chair of the UHI Land & Communities Knowledge Exchange Sector Group.

Alexandros Kakouris is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Management Science and Technology of the University of Peloponnese with the subject “Entrepreneurship: Education and Learning Processes”. He holds a PhD in Physics from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (1997), a Master's Degree in Adult Education from the Hellenic Open University (2011) and a second PhD in Entrepreneurship from the University of the Peloponnese (2017). He teaches and conducts research in Entrepreneurship and Innovation with a focus on start-up and youth entrepreneurship. He has being teaching this subject for several years at various Greek universities such as NKUA, University of the Peloponnese, ASPAITE, HOU, etc., and as a visiting professor abroad (University of Žilina, Slovakia, University Koblenz-Landau, Germany, Neapolis University Pafos, Cyprus). He has also served as Innovation Advisor of the National Observatory of Athens for one year and has many years of experience in career counseling of students as coordinator of the Career Office of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (2004-2013). In the field of entrepreneurship, he has participated for several years in the scientific committee of international conferences (more than 20), co-edited 8 special issues of journals/collected volumes/practical conferences, and has authored a total of 4 books, more than 11 chapters in edited volumes, more than 20 articles in scientific journals and more than 38 articles in conference proceedings. His research interests are in the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation, learning and education (entrepreneurial intention, creativity and innovation, entrepreneurial opportunity, entrepreneurship as a learning process, etc.) as well as adult education and the use of new technologies and methods in education. His scientific papers have been awarded at the ICEIRD 2017 and ECIE 2019 conferences. He is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Management Education published by Elsevier.