Social Network Based Approaches to Entrepreneurship in Local Economic Development
Marginal farming is a bit like Small business start-ups. One can't do it very well without a social network. One person put it, "you can't possibly do it if you have to pay for everything. There have to be tradeoffs and helping each other, or it won't work in Western Manitoba".South-West Manitoba is well connected for the most part to each other. The population has been fairly stable except for the steady out migration of most of the young people and the steady depopulation of the farms over the last thirty years or so.
The insights from the literature concerning entrepreneurial activity and social networks are quite informative as it relates to local economic development activities. It notes that financial support, protected markets, steady supplies of labor and "ethnic enclave" (haven for relatives and friends) are all typical benefits. The literature also noted that businesses that fail to move beyond such a narrow scope tend to level off and decline. Money which is brought into an area such as Westman is all to the good. The Internet and Global market place are proposed as new avenues for increased sales, but it remains to be seen just how much those materialize.
Any efforts to expand the market beyond Westman would seem to be an appropriate approach to economic development of he region. Links relating to this aspect of entrepreneurial support are listed below.
Links to Further Resources:
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