Indigenous Rural Firms: Farm Enterprises in the UK

DR. SARA CARTER IS SENIOR RESEARCHiI fellow in the Department of Marketing at the University of Str athclyde, Scotland, and Dr. Peter Rosa is senior lectturer in the Department of Entrepr-eneurship at the University of Stirling, Scotland. This paper argues that despite anincreasingly sophisticated smnall btusiness literature analysing rulral en-ite -prises, farms have been largelb excluded from this investigation. As a r-esult there has been a substantial accuninnulation of knowledge about newerc for-inis of ruiral enterprise while the indigenous rural firms remain unclhai-ted. Th-is papeiseeks to redress this by presenitinig an exploratory analysis of the B-itish far-mii sector using the conventional srmall business paradigm. Ylhe results demonstrate the broad similarities between farm and non-farm r-ural enterprises and also the residuial strentgth of small-scale agricultural 1)r oduction. It is argued that farm enterprises remain an important but hitherto overlooked element of the small brusinless sector. Becatise mnost f;arms are fIamilv-owxned conceirus xNvIkic hax e lae Igetl survived transition throu-igh generatiios. further analysis of the secztor can proxitit substanitial insight inito aspec ts of entreprenietrrial behaviotir at tIre cen r e of the small btusiness clebate.