Rural Entrepreneurship: Yatagan Example from History to Present

Abstract

Wortman (1989) defines the rural entrepreneurship as the creation of a new organization that introduces a new product, serves or creates a new market, or utilizes a new technology in a rural environment. In other saying, rural entrepreneurship is a value creating activity for both entrepreneur and rural area. Rural entrepreneur is defined as someone who lives in rural and carries out entrepreneurial activities in there. Purpose of this study is to investigate rural entrepreneurship in rural development context. Accordingly, a field research was done in order to reveal rural entrepreneurship findings in Yatagan where Turkish swords and knives produce and market. After examination of documents including historical development and present situation of Yatagan's production and entrepreneurship tradition, interviews were conducted with related individuals who attempted on aforementioned area. According to the findings obtained from field research, the business which was founded by the local community failed to ensure its continuity. It means production and marketing activities turned back to the family business level. The production of Yatagan is effectuated in small workshops at the present day. Sales are performed personally or customers directly come to manufacturers and place an order by using the internet or by wholesalers. As a result of the field study, some suggestions have been presented to convert rural entrepreneurship to rural development.