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Understanding rural entrepreneurship in a Bangladesh village — individuals, roles or structures?
01.12.1996
Despite the centrality of small enterprise development to current development practice among donors and NGOs, the concept of entrepreneurship has only rarely been examined since the heyday of modernization theory. Moving beyond the emphasis on key individuals and special qualities and instead focusing on ideas about structure and context, we can use the concept to understand how people gain access to new non-cultivating roles in agriculture in rural Bangladesh. Processes of technological change under privatization and structural adjustment have created new opportunities leading to the creation of new forms of technology-based enterprise in rural areas. These need not always be captured by local élites. For NGOs and other development agencies there may be new openings for innovative support to enterprise efforts by the poor.