Abstract
This thesis aims to enhance rural resilience through rural tourism entrepreneurship, and to provide both theoretical support and practical contributions for addressing deep-rooted challenges in rural areas and promoting comprehensive rural revitalization. To achieve this, the thesis comprises three interrelated studies, each approaching the topic from a distinct perspective.After completing a systematic literature review of entrepreneurial ecosystems, Study2 of this thesis explores how rural entrepreneurial activities can bring sustainable solutions to rural villages based on entrepreneurs’ lifestyle pursuits in their business activities. It further examines the relationship between lifestyle pursuits and their impacts on sustainable rural development. Author have discussed “lifestyle entrepreneurs” who hold rural areas’ quality of life as a priority, distinguishing these individuals from more business-oriented entrepreneurs who focus on economic profits. This study argues that all rural entrepreneurs in fact favor lifestyle pursuits to a certain extent in terms of rural businesses. In addition, different types of lifestyles shape entrepreneur’ contributions to rural resilience. Constructivist grounded theory was applied to conduct three rounds of in-depth interviews with 28 rural bed-and-breakfast entrepreneurs in Zhejiang, China, between 2020 and 2022. The resultant framework outlines six types of lifestyles characteristic of these rural entrepreneurs. Findings indicate that “gregarious” and “hedonistic” lifestyles can optimally contribute to both rural resilience and business sustainability.
At the core of entrepreneurship is the entrepreneur, whose actions are typically guided and constrained by systemic and structural factors within the formal institutional framework. Building on this foundation, Study 3 of this thesis adopts Stones (2005)’ Strong Structuration Theory (SST) as its research framework. The key concept of “duality” is used to analyze how rural B&B entrepreneurs continuously interact with the formal institutional system and continuously influence and reshape the inherent social structure through their own agency. At the same time, the study builds on SST to develop a conceptual research framework that explores how ongoing interactions between structure and agency contribute differently to rural resilience under varying contextual conditions. The findings indicate that rural resilience is most significantly enhanced when entrepreneurs are engaged in a Co-Evolutionary Duality with the institutional system.
In summary, the findings of this thesis contribute to enhancing rural resilience, addressing long-standing rural challenges, and advancing comprehensive rural revitalization.
| Date of Award | 15 Nov 2025 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Yi Wang (Supervisor) & Fei Zhu (Supervisor) |