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There is limited experience with innovation policies in rural areas, often based on a one-size-fits-all approach. However, rural businesses have diverse needs and there is difficulty in applying smart specialisation approaches for the use of European Union Cohesion funding in rural areas. A key resource in rural areas is the local university, and universities face increased demands to support local firms. This paper examines one particular case of a university in a rural region and its use of the European Regional Development Fund to support innovation activities. The challenges of working with rural businesses are explored, as is the focus on one-to-one support rather than the more collective smart specialisation approach. Universities need to take a pragmatic approach to ensure that the needs of firms can be balanced with the capacities of rural universities which are often smaller and more specialised than urban universities.

Business Inspiration was a short, action-centred leadership and innovation development programme designed for owners and managers of smaller firms to address business survival and repositioning needs arising from the UK's economic downturn. The article examines the design and delivery of Business Inspiration and the impact of the programme on participants' learning experiences. It also assesses whether there are transferable lessons to be learned for the development of small firms in general. The article contributes new insights to the debate and the literature on owner-manager development in small firms. The authors propose that there is continuing need and demand for such learning. They examine the requirements for public-sector investment and for specific approaches and skill sets in designing, marketing and delivering effective programmes of this type. (Contains 5 tables.)

A case study of a self-termed "rural business" is used to deconstruct the concept of a rural business and shed light on specific features of "operating in a rural area" and "serving a rural population". Alongside "selling a rural product", the paper claims that these make up three parameters for categorising rural businesses. Highlighting these unique or niche features of a rural business makes is possible to recognise values that extend beyond financial measures. As such, this research provides a mechanism to support rural policy aimed at delivering both economic and community development objectives. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

The social, cultural, and economic transitions in rural areas across the globe lead us to critique the traditional "top-down" or "bottom-up" distinction as being outdated for contemporary rural policy. In Europe and the United States in particular, high rates of counterurbanization heighten the need for new ways of thinking about rural development. To address this, we describe the emergence of neoendogenous development theories in the United Kingdom and elucidate further on the economic implications of this approach for rural development. In particular, we examine the role of local and extralocal networks and population flows as facilitators of neoendogenous development based on our independent studies in northeast England and northern Scotland. This approach highlights the importance of diverse forms of capital in rural economies and examines the role of social networks in the utilization of these resources. In-migrant business owners are a valuable research focus as they provide a link between the "local" and the "extralocal," allowing greater insight into the creation and evolution of network ties in relation to economic activity in rural areas.

The environmental planning agenda is shaped by a range of top‐down policies and directives, both nationally and internationally. Simultaneously, several local, often community‐led, initiatives seek to enhance their local environments. This article seeks to understand both synergies and dissonance between top‐down and bottom‐up actions within the environmental conservation and management domain of sustainable development. Four case studies of local voluntary initiatives in Lincolnshire (UK) are used as the basis to examine how the activities and stated goals of the groups align with wider policy goals and engage with formal planning systems. The analysis draws from the neo‐endogenous development theory to offer recommendations about how to recognise and empower local initiatives within a multi‐level governance approach to delivering sustainable development. Conclusions also suggest that the principles of neo‐endogenous development can be applied more widely to capture greater value from community‐led activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Counterurbanisation is transforming rural communities and has implications for entrepreneurial opportunities in rural areas. The rural economy has seen a shift away from the dominant productivist paradigm towards an increasingly consumption-led array of businesses, facilitated by increased mobility and connectivity. Part of this transition has seen increasing rates of new businesses started by people moving into rural areas. This 'commercial counterurbanisation', is stimulating local economies but the ensuing nature of 'development' demands deeper investigation. In particular, this paper explores the ways in which entrepreneurs moving into rural areas are able to recognise distinctive opportunities and assets associated with rurality, drawing on a combination of their extra-local connections and access to local forms of capital. We conclude that the spatiality of social capital and the degree to which commercial counterurbanites become locally embedded are key factors in determining the characteristics of the businesses that they develop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: Gary Bosworth Counterurbanisation has generally been viewed as a negative phenomenon, but Stockdale and Findlay (2004) presented rural in-migration as potentially 'a catalyst for economic regeneration' based on in-migrants' business activity. More than half of rural microbusinesses in the North-East of England are owned by in-migrants and provide an estimated 10% of jobs in the rural North-East (Bosworth, 2006). In the light of these new drivers of rural development, exogenous and endogenous approaches alone are increasingly inadequate (Lowe et al., 1995; Murdoch, 2000; Terluin, 2003). Ray instead proposed Neo-Endogenous Development, defined as 'endogenous based development in which extra-local factors are recognised as essential but which retains belief in the potential of local areas to shape their future' (2001, p.4). Preliminary research suggests that in-migrants tend to retain more extensive business networks while developing valuable local contacts (Bosworth, 2006). As endogenous actors with diverse networks, in-migrants are well placed to strengthen connectivity with the 'extra-local' and introduce new vitality to rural economies.