Sustainable rural entrepreneurship and family farming: a thematic literature review

This study aimed to investigate how rural entrepreneurship and family farming contribute to sustainability, to identify research gaps related to sustainable rural entrepreneurship and family farming and to propose an agenda for future research. A qualitative research with an exploratory and descriptive approach was carried out through a systematic literature review (SLR) that analyzed 59 articles published between 2015 and 2022 in the Web of Science and Scopus databases. It was possible to identify that the studies analyzed had an increase in the number of publications from 2018 with a peak in 2020. Most of the publications come from Latin America (39%), with emphasis on Brazil with 35% of the publications and Europe with 17% of the publications. Most of the research was empirical (71%) and the remaining studies (29%) were theoretical. The content analysis was supported by Rayyan and Atlas ti software, resulting in eleven thematic categories, such as multifunctional agriculture, agrotourism, entrepreneurial education, female entrepreneurship, sustainable rural entrepreneurship, environmental management, innovation, traditional production model, food production, sustainability and other themes. This study contributed to the advancement of academic research in sustainable rural entrepreneurship and the participation of family farming in sustainability, with the perspective of a more sustainable and less impactful agriculture, preserving the environment and ensuring food security for present and future generations.