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Abstract: This study examined the motives underlying decisions by farmers to start new ventures outside conventional agriculture and assessed the importance of the farm family situation in formulating these motives. The study was based on quantitative data obtained from 309 Swedish farmers who self-reported that they ran other ventures in addition to their agricultural production enterprises. Factor analysis revealed a structure with two underlying motives for starting a venture outside conventional agriculture, namely ‘business development for reasons to reduce risk and to use idle resources’ and ‘business development for social and lifestyle reasons’. The factor scores obtained were related to measures of involvement of the farmer's spouse in planning and managing the new venture and the importance of family considerations at a more general level. The results showed that the motives for starting new ventures were dependent on the situation of the farm family, but that the two groups of indicators identified influenced these motives in opposite ways. These findings are of obvious interest for rural development policy makers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We use the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to explain how underlying psychological constructs influence farmers' decisions to extend their farm businesses to income-generating ventures outside conventional agricultural production. The analysis contrasts the influence of psychological constructs on this decision with those on decisions to specialise in a single farm enterprise or to have multiple farm enterprises. This is one of the first studies to introduce psychological constructs into the study of farm diversification. It is based on a sample of 929 Swedish farms participating in the official Swedish Farm Economic Survey. These data are supplemented with a detailed postal questionnaire to the participating farmers, generating a response rate of 73% and an effective sample size of 679 farmers and their businesses. Data are analysed with factor and multinomial logistic regression analyses. Results show that psychological constructs in TPB (attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control) influence farmers' decisions regarding the strategy they adopt. Attitude and subjective norm are found to be especially influential in these decisions. Given the prominent role agriculture still has in rural development policy, where the development of new ventures in farm businesses is perceived as the engine for rural economic growth and employment, these findings have clear policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a survey of 150 firms about the main problems faced in the early stages by NTBFs with different roots, and the contributions of different actors in the early development of technology-based firms. In the analysis the different generic problems of the young firms are put in relation to contributions not only in terms of finance but also in terms of their support in finding the market niche and developing an early product concept into market-viable applications. Our analysis shows that firms in the technology forefront experience greater problems in fundraising as compared to firms of lesser technological sophistication. The same holds for high-growth firms as opposed to low-growth firms. The typical high growth firm operates in an environment characterized by new technology and an emerging market. This implies extreme levels of uncertainty and may explain the greater difficulties these firms experience in financing, especially in the early stages of development. Moreover, firms with the highest levels of technology more often originate from university or research related environments than firms with less novel technology. The analysis also shows that in all (problem) dimensions, business angels are considered to be the most important actor group by the firms in the study. It also turns out that the most growth-oriented firms are the ones most favoured by business angels and venture capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]