Great Expectations or Small Country Living? Enabling Small Rural Creative Businesses with ICT

Bibliographic Data

ID4811299
AuthorsAlistair R Anderson (0000-0002-1072-4593, Centre for Entrepreneurship Aberdeen Business School Robert Gordon University Garthdee Aberdeen AB10 7QG UK, corresponding author), Catherine Wallace (0000-0002-1218-624X, King's College School of Social Science University of Aberdeen King Street Aberdeen AB24 3QY UK), Claire Wallace (King's College School of Social Science University of Aberdeen King Street Aberdeen AB24 3QY UK), Leanne C Townsend (0000-0001-6876-7791, University of Aberdeen), Leanne Townsend (0000-0002-6650-9569, The School of Social Science University of Aberdeen Edward Wright Building, Dunbar Street Aberdeen AB24 3QY UK)
Year2016
Volume56
Issue3
Pages450-468
Publication date2016-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociologia Ruralis (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0199 • E-ISSN: 1467-9523
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/soru.12104
OpenAlexW2160595558
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited65

Small businesses are prototypical rural business, but limited by distance. However, creative businesses are less constrained by space and hold great promise for rural development. Indeed, the rural is an attractive creative aesthetic milieu. Moreover, new broadband technologies seem to offer a solution to address connectivity; the social and spatial problem of being rural. Consequently, we ask how does broadband enable small rural creative firms. We sought out the practices and experiences of creative business owners, finding that broadband offered useful technical, creative, and business linking. However many were frustrated by poor technical performance. Furthermore, the accelerating pace of ICT worried respondents, who feared being left behind. Nonetheless for most-without broadband their rural location would have been impossible. We found that broadband has fostered creative rural businesses, but as new ways of making a small country living rather than stimulating a rural creative milieu. The digital promise of a creative transformation of the rural has not been realised in Scotland

Broadband · Business · Creative industries · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Information and Communications Technology · Pace · Political science · Rural area · Space (punctuation) · Telecommunications · Computer Science · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Engineering · Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences · Marketing · Rural development and sustainability

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