The study of how companies arise in rural areas has gained a place in the agenda of researchers, academics and public officials. This is a documentary review in which the rural entrepreneurship process is conceived as an interaction of four elements: the process, the entrepreneur, the context and the community benefits. An important amount of evidence has been generated on the relationship between these components, however, a series of pending tasks are identified, including the need to specify the factors that favour the process in each of its stages, in terms of the characteristics of the entrepreneur and the context.
