ABSTRACT This paper aims to advance the theory of rural entrepreneurship by bridging the gap between rural entrepreneurship and rural value creation. Rural entrepreneurship is part of a collaborative and resilient process of rural value creation to stimulate regional development. Rural entrepreneurship is embedded in and based on the characteristics of the place where it occurs and has a clear orientation towards social sustainability. The research question of this paper is to identify how rural entrepreneurship contributes to rural value creation. This question raises a further question: What is rural value, or what is considered value creation in rural areas? Through a bibliometric analysis, we identify research constructs in rural entrepreneurship that allow us to create a novel research taxonomy and a theoretical framework that focuses on a broad concept of rural value creation. Our findings and discussion highlight the collaborative nature of rural entrepreneurship in creating value for the rural community, contributing to local resilience and social sustainability through specific business models that go beyond the exclusive generation of economic benefits. We also propose a definition of rural value that will contribute to future research on rural entrepreneurship and all research focusing on rural issues from any perspective.
