Online entrepreneurship as a strategy for rural development: Case of Turkey

Rural development is one of the most important topics in Turkey's regional development strategies. In spite of the fact that Turkey's urban population has an increasing trend, still a considerable amount of population is located in rural areas Even though according to 2015 address based population results the ratio of rural population is close to %8, before the legislation change in 2012 the rural population was close to %22. The rural population looks like decreased however the rural life continues. In accordance to this information, an important part of the population is employed in agriculture, which is one of the main rural economic activities. The problem is that economic value of agricultural activities is lower when the ratio of agricultural employment is compared to the ratio of agriculture's share in GDP. To promote rural development, agriculture is one of the main tools. The rural development strategies related with agriculture should be evaluated under the scope of the new economic environment where locality gains importance and the development starts from local/individual. As a result, individual may take responsibility by being an entrepreneur and contribute to economic development. If this scenario is considered for rural areas and agriculture, the producer or the supplier can play an important role as an entrepreneur. Rural entrepreneurs can deliver their agricultural products through one of alternative food networks. Alternative food networks, which became an important topic in literature highlight the importance of locality and sustainability in food network chain. They suggest direct relationship between producer and consumer which means shortening the distance from one to another. The thesis explores the potential of agricultural activities in rural development by researching online rural entrepreneurship as an alternative food network strategy. Moreover, the aim of the thesis is to analyze the effects of online entrepreneurship on rural development and to examine online entrepreneurship through its ecosystem as an alternative. There is a lack of research in this area for Turkey so this study will be a pioneering attempt to contribute to the existing literature. Using empirical case studies from rural Aegean region, a framework for analyzing online rural entrepreneurship is constructed and operationalized. The case study examples are selected from online entrepreneurs whose business is related with rural agricultural products. The important thing is that these selected entrepreneurs should be commercializing local products from their own farms or farms from a close area. Moreover, the sales should be online or directly from the farm. The date of establishment, the number of the workers (including their profile), the amount of sales are important criteria of this research. By using 'business model canvas', the relationships of the system is analyzed and mapped to answer questions as what are the key activities, key resources, revenue streams, cost structure, channels, value propositions, customer relationships& segments. In conclusion, this study assesses how online rural entrepreneurs can contribute to rural development in a wider scope by examining the potential of farmers-entrepreneurs to play a catalyst role in combining local assets to economy. As a result, it is found that online rural entrepreneurship has positive effect on rural development in local extent however in order to widen this effect to regional extent, online rural entrepreneurship should be promoted with public policies.