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This chapter contributes to addressing the gap in the literature on entrepreneurs and enterprise in island and remote rural environments.

The research, policy and practice literature on island enterprises and entrepreneurs is reviewed, taking Scotland as a focus within wider international contexts. Islands – as spaces and cultural places – are recognised in terms of ‘otherness’ and difference, not least in respect of tourism and culture. The importance of distance, isolation and peripherality is discussed as social constructions – myths and narratives – as well as in their mainstream measured equivalences. Agencies and policies are introduced at different levels and given significance reflecting their particular relevance in remote and isolated communities. The significance of the dominant paradigm founded on agglomeration, clusters, connectivity, proximity and competitiveness in the peripheralisation of those establishing and running businesses on islands is explored critically. This is contrasted with experiences from comparative northern European locations of smart specialisation, innovation and resilience, and the underpinning key roles of social capital, relationships and cultural values and norms are identified. Sectoral case studies and enterprise are offered to examine these issues in context.

As this is an exploratory study, results are neither comprehensive nor definitive. However, they are indicative of how forces and obstacles apply in island and remote rural environments.

The study confirms the need to recognise social relations locally, and for policies and strategies to be proofed for locational differences.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide the rationale for the public authorities’ direct interventions to realise benefits for the city and region of Glasgow acting as host city for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The methodology relies on an extensive literature review of the impact of large sporting and cultural events and of the evolution of the partnership approach to social and economic development and regeneration. One of the authors was critically involved in the construction of The Commonwealth Games legacy for Glasgow and so the chapter uses a participant researcher methodology.

The findings are consistent with the lessons from previous mega events as proposed following recent Olympic and Commonwealth Games and World Cups. The City Council was able to introduce a partnership approach which intervened to establish a viable legacy programme.

Research implications, as previous studies have argued, are of a need for evaluation of the legacy programme over a period of several years.

Practical implications follow from the success of the Glasgow Games which confirm the advantages of a partnership-based legacy programme being established early by the host city.

Social implications have been addressed over the short term by others and the longer term impacts of public sector interventions need to be analysed.

Originality/value of the chapter come from the description and assessment of the first legacy programme to be established before the event with wide stakeholder support.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the role of territory in (city‐) regionalisation and to revisit the problems of distance from the core in cluster strategies. The paper further aims to discuss the implications of how agglomeration and networking economies, strongly promoted and based on city regions, are being realised across national boundaries.

The paper argues that there are negative spatial impacts for those areas which do not and cannot establish “core cluster” status. The focus on such “cores” threatens to exacerbate the peripherality of the non‐core regions of the European Union, and especially those in the external (northern) border regions of Europe.

Against an evolving pattern of reducing effective distances across the mainland continent through EU funding, Celtic and Nordic Europe is facing a relative increase in peripherality. Ownership and control of industry and the economy are becoming ever more concentrated and centralised at the core, and monetary and fiscal policies are driven by the needs of the market and so of the demands of the metropolitan heart of the continent. While the new territorial clusters are promising growth and development for some regions allowing them to converge on the core, this should not be allowed to obscure the threats to others which are becoming ever more disadvantaged.

The paper highlights a major, albeit not much acknowledged, threat emanating from the current focus on city regions as “economic champions” in debates and policy making. Not only does this threaten to overlook, but, indeed, may create areas of “exclusion” and peripherality.

It is important that agency advice and support for SMEs in rural areas is congruent with how business-owners perceive their needs and challenges. To explore how well matched these two sides are, this chapter investigates the difficulties faced by small businesses operating in rural southwest Scotland.

In-depth interviews with business influencers (those whose activities affect businesses either through application of policy initiatives, development of policy or the giving of business advice) and owner-managers of rural businesses compare and contrast the perceptions of the challenges of rurality for small businesses.

Mismatches are revealed between the concerns of rural business-owners and what business influencers understand them to be. Business influencers consider that structural weaknesses and a ‘lifestyle’ business culture in the region inhibit growth, but business owners are strategic in their business aspirations and approaches to growth. However, they are also highly critical of the promotion of the region and concerned about the misunderstanding of potential visitors that the region is remote and difficult to access.

This chapter reports experiences in a particular rural location; such experiences are typical of many rural regions and, thus, the findings should be transferable.

The region’s economic strategy focuses on reducing the significant prosperity gap with the rest of the country. Key to this is the development of indigenous business sectors. However, the policy interventions derived from a misapprehension of the constraints and underpinning culture of indigenous businesses are unlikely to be successful and may be counter-productive.

Contrasting the perspectives of those who do business with those who influence business reveals issues of understanding which need to be addressed.

Attempts to diversify and regenerate the rural economy often embrace a particular representation of the local culture and society. The quality food product industry in particular has secured its status as a key player in the future of rural Scotland, Analysed here is the development of the cluster and enterprise strategies which seek to add value to advance competitive advantage in both domestic and global markets. Based in a consideration of the policy frameworks for rural Scotland, and of the food and tourism sectors especially (both prioritised by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands & Islands Enterprise as key sectors), this paper presents a critical evaluation of how value is construed through an examination of current case studies of Scottish quality food production and promotion. The paper considers how the promotion of particular signifiers of “added value” has implications for how regionality, rurality, quality and Scottishness are all defined.

The objective of this chapter is to lay the foundation for the edited collection of contemporary research contributions contained in this book. Specifically, the chapter is concerned with defining and conceptualising rural entrepreneurship.

The chapter seeks to explore why and how a rural enterprise can be defined, and determines whether rural entrepreneurship is a distinctive category of entrepreneurship theory and practice. Building on descriptive rural enterprise taxonomies proposed in previous studies, the chapter considers the drivers and barriers impacting on firm start-up, growth and decline in rural environments.

The authors argue that there is little difference between a rural and non-rural enterprise in terms of structure, that is how the business is organised or managed, or how the characteristics of the individual entrepreneur are exhibited. Thus, it would appear that there is no specific category for, nor definition of a rural entrepreneur beyond that of ‘an individual who manages a venture in a rural setting’.

The chapter is based mainly on a review of extant literatures.

The chapter concludes that it is the exogenous factors that differentiate rural from non-rural ventures, and it is these factors that will have a significant impact on start-up, growth and failure rates.