G.A.Alsos, S.Carter, E.Ljunggren, and F.Welter (eds.), The Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship in Agriculture and Rural Development. Northhampton: Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc. 320 pp., ISBN: 978 1 84844 635 0, $195 hardcover.

Sectoral research on entrepreneurship has often focused on manufacturing, high technology, and service industries, with seemingly little attention paid to agriculture.This book remedies the shortfall by bringing together 16 separate studies of various aspects of entrepreneurship in agriculture with an eye for how fluctuations impact rural development.With 46 contributors, it would have been easy for the handbook to lack direction and cohesion.However, the editors have done an admirable job of organizing the text and linking concepts across sections.The use of consistent and clear formatting of the included studies is especially appreciated and contributes to the overall continuity of the book.The Introduction, authored by the volume's editors, provides an overview of the philosophy of the handbook, and convincingly motivates the need for entrepreneurial research focused expressly on agriculture.Specifically, the editors credit increased retailer concentration, policy reforms that have reduced support for agriculture, and the growing complexity of consumer preferences, all as sources of rationale for the observed increase in entrepreneurial activity in agriculture.Broad changes in the sector and attitudes toward entrepreneurship have created numerous research opportunities for economist and rural sociologist alike; however, the editors posit that the two camps are rarely linked despite sharing common research objectives.Indeed, none of the individual studies contained in the volume appear to be jointly authored by economists and rural sociologists.Thus, the bridging of the two disciplines is primarily left for the editors to suggest and the reader to infer from their juxtaposition of individual studies.Despite a lack of interchapter collaboration, an effort is made to organize the book into sections, within which are contributions from both disciplines.The result is, at minimum, an illumination of the similarity of outcomes that can be achieved via application of different social science methodologies.Unlike the theoretically dense Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research: Disciplinary Perspectives (Alvarez, Agarwal, & Sorenson, 2005), the chapters in this handbook rely heavily on the case study method, with significantly less emphasis on examination of theoretical underpinnings and cutting-edge statistical methods.Econometricians looking for statistical rigor may want to look elsewhere for methodological guidance.However, applied agricultural economistsparticularly those with an affinity for industrial organization, food policy, agribusiness, and regional economics fields-may find this volume a refreshingly quick read, unencumbered by lengthy discussions of theory, supporting literature, and methods.The chapters are organized according to three themes.The first theme, "Entrepreneurship in the Farming Sector," includes six studies focused on the individual firm or farm or on individual entrepreneurs.The diversity of entrepreneurial activities is explored and differences explained in terms of resource depth and breadth, farmer motivation, and other factors.Probability of entrepreneurial success is found to be enhanced by access to resources; however, chapter 5, by Jorunn Grande, demonstrates that resource richness alone does not guarantee profitability.Rather, she argues, the probability of success is enhanced through the operator's ability to be creative and think strategically about how to deploy resources.Chapter 6, by St-Jean, Le Bel, and Audet, all from Quebec, reviews the case of Eastern Canadian forestry firms where operation size and depth of entrepreneurial potential are found to be positively correlated.Chapter 7, by Pyysiäinen, Halpin, and Vesala, summarizes a study of European farmers' attitudes towards entrepreneurship and finds that, contrary to public perception, survey respondents are amenable to the idea of entrepreneurship and towards self-identification as entrepreneurs.Despite a lack of philosophical resistance towards change and innovation, some farmers feel that entrepreneurial activities are not right for their type of operations.Thus,

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