Rural roots, urban branches

The influence of place attachment on hybrid entrepreneurs

Bibliographic Data

ID19220503
AuthorsJoseph Macharia (0000-0002-5152-5208, Queensland University of Technology, corresponding author), Shane Mathews (0000-0002-5365-6586, Queensland University of Technology), Sandeep Salunke (0000-0002-0253-5522, Queensland University of Technology)
Year2026
Volume126
Pages104265-104265
Publication date2026-06-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Rural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0743-0167 • E-ISSN: 1873-1392
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104265
OpenAlexW7163823028
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited39

Urban professionals and diaspora actors who retain salaried employment while financing, supervising and periodically visiting rural farms are increasingly important but heterogeneous participants in rural transformation. We conceptualise this phenomenon as a spatially stretched form of hybrid entrepreneurship and examine how emotional and instrumental place attachment shape rural venture engagement in Kenya. Drawing on an abductive qualitative multiple-case study of 27 urban-based and diaspora Kenyan farmer-entrepreneurs, we show that managing rural ventures at a distance is organised through four configurations of place attachment: emotionally grounded engagement, blended emotional-instrumental engagement, socially mediated rural engagement and instrumentally driven engagement. These configurations show that urban-funded rural ventures are not a single category. Some participants use farming to sustain family heritage, cultural continuity and rural belonging; others combine commercial goals with community-oriented value creation; some are drawn in through peer influence, family obligation and community expectations; and others approach rural land primarily as a productive or portfolio asset. Distance, digital oversight, civic roles and prior rural ties operate as contextual conditions through which attachment is expressed, rather than deterministic causes of venture behaviour. The study extends hybrid entrepreneurship research by showing that hybridity is not only occupational but also spatially stretched across urban employment and rural enterprise. It advances place-attachment research by showing how emotional and instrumental attachments combine among already place-connected actors and contributes to rural studies by explaining heterogeneous forms of distant rural embeddedness in the Kenyan agricultural context

Aging in place · Place attachment · Place identity · Rural area · Indigenous and Place-Based Education · Place Attachment and Urban Studies · Rural development and sustainability

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access