What shapes a rural woman innovator? A comparative perspective of the impact of territorial and spatial influences on women's entrepreneurial identities

Research on the factors influencing rural women's entrepreneurs remains theoretically underdeveloped. There is a limited understanding of the impact of different types of rural areas on women's entrepreneurial activities, or how age, education and access to resources shape the type of activities undertaken. The idea of ‘place’ identity for women's entrepreneurial activities is particularly underexplored in literature. This article contributes to an understanding of how rural women's entrepreneurial identity develops. In this article, we compare two groups of women entrepreneurs in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and in the South East of Ireland. Both groups participated in entrepreneurial ‘living labs’ for 3 years as part of a wider Horizon Europe project. In the Highlands and Islands, women are very remote, younger, have less access to resources, and are at an earlier stage in their innovations. In Ireland, women are urban adjacent, older, more affluent and at a further stage in their innovations. We find that local and natural resources shape the initiatives developed, and that access to finance and markets is critical. Moreover, women continue to juggle gendered expectations around their entrepreneurial activities and identities. Women found the opportunity to network with each other important and highlighted that it provided legitimacy to their entrepreneurship. In the Scottish case, we also found that in remote areas with limited services, women undertake social enterprises to provide this infrastructure. We conclude that space and place are central to women's rural entrepreneurial identities.