Olga Iakovidou

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN THE GREEK COUNTRYSIDE: A TYPOLOGY ACCORDING TO MOTIVES AND BUSINESS CHARACTERISTICS

Differences between male and female entrepreneurs provide compelling reasons to study the latter separately. Especially in rural areas, research shows that women are a remarkable and unexplored source of the labor force. Nevertheless, few researchers have examined rural women and the issues pertaining to their entrepreneurship separately. The contribution of this study to the debate of women entrepreneurship is the closer examination of women in Greek rural areas. This research aims to examine factors that must be considered independently with recognition to the variances of rural areas with different geomorphologic and economic profiles. The characteristics of women entrepreneurship in Greek rural areas and the womens motives for the undertaking of the entrepreneurial activity are used to identify a typology of women entrepreneurs in the Greek countryside.

WOMEN'S AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATIVES IN GREECE: A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW AND SWOT ANALYSIS

Very few womens co-operatives exist in Europe today; of those that do, the vast majority are involved in non-agricultural sectors. For the past thirty years in Greece, numerous womens agricultural co-operatives have been established in rural areas and scholars have articulated several aspects of their role in both womens life and the local development. A cursory glance at the history of the womens agricultural co-operatives in Greece and a review of the literature highlights the uniqueness of this type of entrepreneurship (a rarity in Europe) and their significant role for rural society cohesion, mainly in geographically and economically isolated rural areas. In this paper we employ a SWOT analysis to elaborate on strengths and weaknesses, which vary from co-operative to co-operative. Either bottom-up or top-down created womens co-operatives are currently a social innovation. Their strengths mainly concern economic independence and social inclusion of women in rural areas, while their weaknesses are mainly associated with funding, organization, administration, know how, culture, product promotion and marketing problems. Nevertheless, they are called upon to survive in a competitive environment; although difficult, it is one that provides opportunities that most likely can outweigh threats.

THE EVOLUTION OF STUDIES ON BUSINESS LOCATION FACTORS

Entrepreneurship has been widely considered as the power that drives development and well-being in the regions it affects. As a result, local, regional and national institutions, as well as researches in different disciplines, have focused on finding and researching the factors leading to the installation of business on a certain location. Therefore, it seems well-timed to present a quantitative survey of the literature review of this field. The scope of this article is to present past and present research studies related to the business location factors (BLF) identifying the most important sub-topics, contributors and their geographical distribution, major outlets, main empirical methodologies employed, as well as the most frequently studied countries. The presentation and documentation of the existing literature review could be a valuable tool for policy makers in the regional and national level, as well as for active entrepreneurs and researchers engaged in relevant academic disciples. Policy makers could take advantage of the BLF to attract investments in regions seeking development while active entrepreneurs could realize the important role played by the factors affecting the location of their business in a specific place and researchers could trace and fill in potential research voids on this subject.

Trends of Tourism Market for Agro-Tourism

ABSTRACT Contemporary “quest” trends are defined by a demand for an agro-tourism product that is not defined to offering bed and breakfast. Agro-tourism product must be diversified and it must be based on what is demanded from the visitors of rural areas. The aim of this paper is to identify the features and motives of potential visitors from Thessaloniki area to the broader region of Mt. Kerkini, in Central Macedonia, as well as their choice of activities, as these define their choice of agro-tourism as a form of alternative tourism. Analysis of data has shown that people who select agro-tourism are usually young, of a high educational level and high income. They often prefer “mini breaks” lasting a few days and spread throughout the year and are prepared to spend relatively high sums of money on their accommodation. Short breaks and their distribution over the year make agro-tourism a kind of secondary complementary holiday. They prefer a structured agro-tourism product, which apart from the main services—bed and breakfast—it includes leisure activities, as well as cultural events and activities connected to environment.