Designing and Explaining the Development Model of Palm Conversion and Complementary Industries with an Innovation Approach in Creating Rural Women\'s Entrepreneurship in Kerman Province

Extended Abstract Background: One of the most important economic and social developments in Iran has been the significant increase in the population of female entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs play a significant role in job creation, wealth, poverty reduction, human development, education, health, and development of the country, especially in developing countries. The development of transformational and complementary industries in villages is a solution for empowerment and capacity building to reduce the gap between cities and villages, create economic, social, environmental, and institutional equality, and is an important tool to achieve sustainable development. The lack of attention to innovation management in the date conversion and finishing industries is one of the important factors that has made these industries unable to find their way to global markets. Considering the level of mass palm production, Kerman Province can take an effective step toward industrialization and creating employment for women in villages by developing processed products related to dates. The role of women is very important in the agricultural production system and rural development. Women are active in different ways in the villages, but their activity is invisible. Rural entrepreneurship in the direction of empowering rural women, as a key factor in reducing gender gaps, preventing migration to cities, and ensuring food security, is one of the important pillars of rural community development. Rural women's entrepreneurship supports the stability of the local economy in the village and improves the villagers’ quality of life. To inform society and defend the rights of women, various activities have been carried out in this field. By analyzing the capacities, talents, and opportunities of each region, entrepreneurs can offer many challenges and solutions for rural women's entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship and employment of rural women increase the family income and improve the literacy and health status of the family and can affect rural life and ultimately the whole society. Therefore, identifying the entrepreneurial talents of rural people, especially rural women, and trying to develop and strengthen entrepreneurship by providing its basic conditions, are of particular importance. Accordingly, the present research aims to identify the dimensions of the development of date conversion and complementary industries in the development of rural women entrepreneurs. Methods: This research is a descriptive-analytical study in terms of the nature and method and an applied study in terms of the purpose. Information was collected through library and field studies. The geographical area is the villages of Kerman Province where palm trees grow and women are active in the field of date processing and supplementary industries. In the qualitative part, data were collected using the opinions of academic experts, managers, and entrepreneurial experts with semi-structured interviews using the approach of database theory. The tools of data collection were interviews and questionnaires in the qualitative and quantitative parts, respectively. According to the outputs of the interview part, the research questionnaire was extracted through the final codes and put in the form of a quantitative part questionnaire in the quantitative part of the research. According to the statistics of 2021, 96 people were employed in the three fields of marketing, packaging, and processing of date products. A sample size of 76 people was estimated according to Cochran's formula. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire containing 58 items. SPSS and Amos software were used for data analysis. The structural equation modeling method was used to analyze and examine the desired relationships in the conceptual model. Results: According to the results obtained from the confirmatory factor analysis model and the scores or factor load for each of the indicators, causal conditions, background conditions, intervening conditions, consequences, and the development model of date transformation and complementary industries on strategies with path coefficients of 0.82, 0.39, 0.76, and 0.86, respectively, significantly affect the entrepreneurship of rural agricultural women. The final model was obtained from the categories of causal conditions (system efficiency and innovation with a factor load of 0.81), contextual category (marketing ability with a factor load of .79), and intervening conditions (economic incentives with a factor load of 0.88) in strategies (globalization with a factor load of 89 0.0) and consequences (economic growth with a factor load of 0.89). Conclusion: The studies conducted on date conversion and complementary industries in the villages of Kerman Province showed that educated women with different specializations and the desire to be entrepreneurs in the field of date conversion and complementary industries in rural areas  will become active members of the local community by creating employment and financial support for rural women. Processing agricultural products, including dates, with an innovative approach is a useful action among rural women entrepreneurs to improve women's access to global markets. Since rural women are weak financially and socially, strengthening rural women's entrepreneurship should be accompanied by financial and economic support. The category of entrepreneurship is associated with the concept of innovation, therefore, innovative women should be supported and the necessary background and facilities, including education, should be provided for rural women to be innovative regarding the transformation and complementary industries of dates. Setting up business teams of rural women increases their awareness and capacity for employment and entrepreneurship.