Identifying sustainable rural entrepreneurship indicators in the Iranian context

Sustainable entrepreneurship is a strategy for development, growth, and prosperity that has received the attention of researchers, especially in the fields of economic development and rural businesses. The present study aims to identify the sustainable entrepreneurship indicators in Iranian rural businesses using the Fuzzy Delphi method. The results derived from three phases of the Delphi technique introduced 87 indicators for sustainable entrepreneurship. However, considering the threshold, just 69 indicators were approved by the experts. In the sociocultural dimension, scholars pay special attention to the promotion of social trust and social altruism and empathy among the local people. In the economic dimension, indicators such as utilization of facilities, cost management of products and services for business stability, and market management had higher averages. Finally, major indicators of the ethical dimension include financial business transparency, ethics in using biological resources, and managing human resources. In general, the obtained results highlight the importance of determining the stability of indicators in rural entrepreneurship and the necessity of managers' and politicians' attention toward this sector. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.