ROLE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT ON POVERTY REDUCTION IN RURAL AREAS OF BANGLADESH: STUDY BASED ON CUMILLA DISTRICT

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is considered as an alternative way to tackle some of the socio economic problems that bedeviled some countries presently, especially problem of high unemployment and poverty. Entrepreneurship development is the process of enhancing entrepreneurial skills and knowledge through structured training and institutional building programs focused on individuals who wish to start or expand a business. One of the major challenges facing developing and underdeveloped countries of the world is poverty. It has been so endemic as a result of the high rate of unemployment that has become the major characteristic of the developing and underdeveloped countries of the world. The study focused on the role of entrepreneurship development on poverty alleviation in Cumilla district. A sample of 50 respondents was selected randomly from the selected area of Cumilla district. Multiple regression analysis was used as the statistical procedure to analyze the data. All the seven variables jointly explained 89.0% of the variation in explaining entrepreneurs total income (R 2 =0.890, and adj. R xii

2 =0.872). The results supported four hypotheses, which confirmed that entrepreneurship development has positive relationship with total income. However, three hypotheses were rejected on the relationship between entrepreneurship development and total income, suggesting that entrepreneurship development does not improve the respondent‟s total income. The unique finding of the study is that, entrepreneurial experience is the underlying factor for the increase of total income. To enable generalization of this finding, further study is recommended in other districts. Keywords: Entrepreneurship Development, Poverty Alleviation.