Designing a Model for The Development of Rural Entrepreneurship Ecosystem with Emphasis on Ecotourism Resorts in Tourist Villages of Khorasan Razavi Province

Developing the rural entrepreneurship ecosystem could be considered an appropriate strategy to accelerate the development of rural areas and increase job opportunities. On the other hand, applying entrepreneurship to Iran’s ecotourism and rural tourism is considered a supplement to agricultural activities to create favorable living conditions for the villagers and resolve the challenges existing in rural development. Therefore, this study sought to present a model for developing the rural entrepreneurship ecosystem in target tourism villages of Khorasan Razavi province using a qualitative research method with an applied descriptive-survey approach. To this end, the required data were collected via semi-structured interviews made with fifteen managers and board members of eco-tourist resorts. The data were then analyzed using the Grounded Theory method. Moreover, the validity and reliability of the model were measured via the Kappa index and confirmed by two researchers in the field of tourism and a few university professors. The study’s results suggested that the development of the ecosystem requires the decision maker to consider five aspects, including strategic orientation and effective leadership, identify appropriate sites’ locations, monitor the ecosystem’s development and provide its improvement mechanisms, set the demand-side policies, supply-side policies, and twelve sub-factors. Therefore, it could be argued that the proposed model may provide valuable insights for the development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem in rural areas with an emphasis on ecotourism opportunities.