ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a primer on the major challenges facing rural entrepreneurship to set the stage for examining rural-urban differences. It then moves to the analysis of the Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS), beginning with a discussion of the survey and its sample frame. It uses data from the Kauffman Firm Survey to profile entrepreneurship in rural America, with a particular focus on how rural entrants differ from urban entrants in their start-year characteristics. Rural America has fallen in line with the national shift toward a service-based economy. But even within services, rural areas tend to specialize in industries that primarily target local populations rather than in the high-growth, high-wage advanced and professional services. Entrepreneurship in the form of microenterprise development is also closely associated with community development initiatives that empower residents to become more self-sufficient and reduce rural communities' dependence on a small number of dominant employers.
