An Exploratory Study for Conceptualization of Rural Innovation in Indian Context

Innovation is central to the economic growth and development of any nation. In rural context, innovation approach provides new ways to solve the problems of rural people and to create new opportunities for entrepreneurship development. Yet the empirical studies on rural innovation is still young in literature. Thus, this paper describes the conceptualization of rural innovation in rural Indian context based on filed survey. The paper's main objective is to find out the variables of rural innovation from literature review and to identify the factors of rural innovation by analyzing empirical data. The filed survey is performed through close ended questionnaire and face-to-face interview of 140 rural people who involved in entrepreneurial activities. The finding of the paper revealed that there are three factors of rural innovation include knowledge sharing for enhancing economic efficiency, new learning for economic scale up and new skill development for economic scope. Thus, this research gives unique contribution to literature by describing the measurable conceptualization of rural innovation in Indian context. The study highlights that knowledge, learning and skills development, as elements of human capital having contribution in configuration of rural innovation. Moreover, the study allows for the implication to be made for rural entrepreneurship development. However, the future scope of this research could corporate large sample data, greater number of variables of rural innovation and conduct in other countries.