Social support dependency: exploring the influence of food assistance on rural entrepreneurship

Institutional support systems are widely used to alleviate poverty, yet their relationship with rural entrepreneurship remains poorly understood. We develop the concept of dependency-inducing support systems (DISS) to explain how institutional support shapes individuals’ likelihood of engaging in rural self-employment. Building on resource dependence theory and research on institutional assistance, we conceptualize DISS as exposure to externally controlled, rule-bound support arrangements that structure both access to essential resources and the conditions under which economic decisions are made. DISS shifts attention from institutional support as a transfer of resources to an enduring institutional environment that shapes how individuals evaluate risk, opportunity, and self-directed economic action. Using U.S. Current Population Survey data (2019–2023), complemented by qualitative interviews, we find that DISS exposure is negatively associated with rural self-employment and that this association is weaker among individuals attending school. These findings suggest that institutional support shapes entrepreneurial participation not only through resource provision but also through its institutional design and the dependency dynamics it creates. By introducing DISS, this study offers a new conceptual framework for understanding entrepreneurship under conditions of poverty and advances research on rural entrepreneurship, institutional support, and regional development.