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Rural areas in the developed world are often regarded as in need of development, a pre-industrial leftover in a linear process of progress (Rostow, 1990). They hold many similarities with rural areas in the developing world. Both contexts have been defined through a peripherality from the centre, leading to uneven levels of development in terms of poverty, inequality and access to resources. Both contexts are often examined through the lenses of community and cultural distinctiveness. Both are the subject of ongoing argument as to whether the rural environment represents a constraint to be removed or offers an opportunity to be celebrated. These contexts appear conceptually close and, as a consequence, one might expect significant theoretical crossover between research into rural entrepreneurship and into international development through entrepreneurship. Despite these clear commonalities, theoretical …