When an initiative promises more than it delivers: a multi-actor perspective of rural entrepreneurship difficulties and failure in Thailand

National governments invest in initiatives aimed at encouraging rural entrepreneurship on the assumption that it contributes to competitiveness and employment. Empirical findings about one such initiative in Thailand reveal the nature of entrepreneurship difficulties and the diverse expressions of entrepreneurship failure, not only in the sense of termination of activities and exit but also entrepreneurs’ inability to meet the objectives and aims of the initiative. Significant attitudinal inadequacies such as risk aversion, passivity and over-reliance on the public sector complement entrepreneurship resource weaknesses in explaining rural entrepreneurship difficulties and failure. Findings demonstrate inadequacies of one-size-fits-all policies seeking to encourage rural entrepreneurship by failing to address the needs and capabilities of the involved entrepreneurs. The discussion also extends current research, first, by studying rural entrepreneurship within an institutional framework in an emerging market context; second, by conceptualizing rural entrepreneurship failure and attitudinal drivers of such failure; third, by documenting and analysing the nature, sources and consequences of the distinct constructs of ‘rural entrepreneurship difficulties’ and ‘rural entrepreneurship failure’; and finally, by presenting a revised theorization of ‘failure’ in entrepreneurship research which recognizes the diverse forms that failure may assume.