What motivates Czech rural retailers? A qualitative study from an unfavorable entrepreneurship environment

Abstract

Rural retail is a concept that has significant benefits for local society in countryside locations. To shape the appropriate conditions for the development of this generally beneficial phenomenon, we need to ask what motivates rural entrepreneurs to give priority to sustaining their business in small Czech villages with less than 1,000 inhabitants. No previous studies were focused on the external and internal factors that influence the entrepreneurial sustainability of rural retail in Czechia. Through a qualitative approach, this study aims to explore the motivation to keep being a rural retail entrepreneur in the unfavourable conditions of Czech rural retail. The summary results of a qualitative study among 30 rural retail entrepreneurs supported by the presentation of five case studies describe how rural retail entrepreneurs face obstacles and how they perceive the gradual changes in the retail market and changes in consumer behaviour. We also identify the most significant external and internal factors that influence a rural retail entrepreneur and show how the motives intersect.