Introduction
In the current situation, the rural society of the country, especially the villages of Ardabil Province, is plagued with many issues and problems, including low income, poverty, migration, evacuation of villages, and low availability of health and welfare services. The main characteristic of all existing issues and problems is related to the weak economic foundations of people and their unstable employment situation. According to experts, one of the necessary solutions to solve these issues and problems is the output and development of entrepreneurship, especially in the villages, emphasizing tasks. Watershed management is conducted in the province, and the ultimate goal of implementing these plans is the well-being of the watershed residents.
Methodology
The current research was conducted in two qualitative (thematic analysis) and quantitative stages to design and validate the entrepreneurship model and sustainable rural development, emphasizing watershed management projects. This research is exploratory in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of type, which was carried out in the field in Ardabil Province. The research was first qualitative interview type and the second quantitative survey method. The statistical population of the research in the first stage was 20 professors of management and watershed management and senior supervisors of the General Directorate of Natural Resources and Watershed Management of Ardabil Province. In the second stage, 200 respondents from beneficiaries of watershed management projects in Ardabil Province were selected for the structural equation modeling method. During the first stage of this research, we conducted in-depth and semi-structured interviews to collect data. In the second stage, we used a redesigned questionnaire with closed answers (using the Likert scale) to collect information based on the indicators of the entrepreneurship model and sustainable rural development, focusing on watershed management projects.
Discussion and conclusion
The coding results show that the factors influencing the formation of this pattern were categorized into seven more primary factors (promotion, providing sustainable resources, tourism, social, economic, new jobs, participation, and empowerment) and 38 concepts (open codes). Based on the research results and among the extracted main components, the tourism component, with a path coefficient of 0.902, has had the greatest impact on the sustainable entrepreneurship of the villagers based on the implemented watershed management plans. Finally, among the influential components in the sustainable entrepreneurship of villagers based on implemented watershed projects, the "promotion" component with a path coefficient of 0.759 has had the most negligible impact in the designed model.
