Unlocking the digital potential of the UK's rural areas is important for the future of rural businesses, rural communities and the UK economy as a whole. The use of digital technologies is yielding new opportunities for businesses, including those located rurally, to enhance business growth and economic development, which significantly contributes to UK prosperity. However, businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in rural areas are often digitally disconnected due to inferior digital connectivity and digital exclusion, including lack of internet access and lower levels of digital literacy. Therefore, this paper provides a better understanding of the rural digital economy, highlighting key digital challenges and opportunities for rural businesses in the UK. An extensive review of both academic and non-academic literature is conducted to identify key digital challenges, digital opportunities, and solutions to overcome the digital disadvantage for rural businesses in the UK in the digital age. Our review emphasises the effectiveness of public sector market interventions in developing broadband infrastructure and smarter digital training and skills development to help address digital deprivation in rural areas. A series of policy recommendations is then formulated to support rural business growth in the digital age and contributing to debates regarding smart rural development in rural areas. This paper has potential limitations due to a non-systematic literature review. Therefore, we recommend applying a systematic review as well as empirical and place-based research to explore the emerging themes of this study for future research.

Social media business networks provide small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) with a modern platform to network, resulting in improved business performance. However, rural SMEs are less likely to access these networks and often underperform urban counterparts. This paper provides a rural–urban comparative analysis of business performance across SMEs for both members and non‐members of social media business networks. Empirically, the analysis draws on data of over 13,000 SMEs from the 2015‐UK Government's Small Business Survey. Inverse Probability Weighting is used to control for selection bias of firms selecting into a location and business network and for variations in business characteristics. The results reveal that rural SMEs that are members of social media business networks tend to register higher turnover and seek to grow sales compared to rural and urban SMEs that are non‐members. For turnover, rural firms that are members of these business networks perform as well as urban SMEs that are members. However, for sales growth, they underperform urban counterparts. Therefore, the development of SMEs’ performance in rural areas requires enhanced online business support environments, improved digital infrastructure and connectivity, the creation of online co‐working spaces, and increased digital and technological skills.

Purpose: This research addresses the relationships between the current, dynamic organisational cyber risk climate, organisational cybersecurity performance and changes in cybersecurity investments, with an aim to address the hostile epistemic climate for intellectual capital management presented by the dynamics of cybersecurity as a phenomenon.Design/methodology/approach: Expanding on the views of digital security and resilience as a knowledge problem, the research looks at cybersecurity as a critical capability within organisations, particularly relevant in critical infrastructure sectors. The problem is studied from the perspective of 400 C-level executives from critical infrastructure sectors across the UK. Data collected at the peak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a time when critical infrastructure organisations have been under a significant strain due to an increase in cybersecurity incidents, were analysed using partial least square structural equation modelling.Findings: The research found a significant correlation between the board's perception of a change in their cybersecurity risk climate and patterns of both the development of cybersecurity management capabilities and cybersecurity investments. The authors also found that a positive correlation exists between the efforts placed by critical infrastructure organisations in cybersecurity training and the changes in investment in their cybersecurity, particularly in relation to their intellectual capital development efforts.Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that explores the board's perception of cybersecurity in critical infrastructure organisations both from the intellectual capital perspective and in the dynamic cyber risk climate derived from the COVID-19 crisis. The authors’ findings expand on the growing perception of cybersecurity as a knowledge problem, and thus inform future research and practice in the domain of intellectual capital management and its role in supporting the cybersecurity and digital resilience of business and society.

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the relationship between being members of social media business networks and SME performance by comparing business performance between family-owned SMEs that are members and non-members of social media business networks.Design/methodology/approach: The analysis empirically draws on cross-sectional data of 9,292 English and Welsh family-owned SMEs from the UK's Government Small Business Survey 2015. Propensity Score Matching (PSM) is applied to control for selection bias and differences in firm characteristics before comparing business performance, measured in terms of annual turnover, sales-growth intention and innovation between family-owned SMEs that are members and non-members of social media business networks.Findings: The findings show that family-owned SMEs that are members of social media business networks are more likely to have higher prior turnover and to grow their sales than non-members. Also, they are more likely to report being innovative in products and processes than non-members. The empirical results acknowledge the importance of online business networks and digital social capital on enhanced family-owned business performance.Originality/value: This paper is the first to explore the comparative analysis of business performance between family-owned SMEs that are members and non-members of social media business networks. This paper is important for the development of family business research by providing a comprehensive evidence-based analysis regarding the importance of online business networks to improve family-owned business performance, given the significant contribution of digital business activities to the UK economy.

Many households in underdeveloped and developing countries still suffer from food insecurity, which is unreliable access to a sufficient quantity of nutritious food. It is a major cause of malnutrition and undernourishment. Thailand is a food surplus country but food accessibility, particularly among rice-farming households, is often problematical. Consequently, their energy consumption is often lower than national minimum dietary energy requirements and they suffer from undernourishment. To provide policy recommendations to support rice-farming households, this study identifies the determinants of their food security using a logit model. Household food security is a binary variable: it is classified as food-secure or food-insecure using a minimum dietary energy requirement threshold of 2,100 kcal/adult equivalent/day. The analysis draws on 2,871 households from Thailand’s SocioEconomic Survey (SES) data in 2011. It finds that 57% of total households are food-secure, while 43% are food-insecure. Key findings are as follows. First, those households with relatively better educated heads are more likely to be food-secure than those with lower educational levels. Second, increases in household income or food expenditure lead to higher probabilities of food security. Third, households that produce more food for own consumption are more likely to be food-secure than those which sell a higher proportion of what they produce. Fourth, livestock ownership or increases in farm inputs, such as family labor, farm size and fertilizer, improve the probability of food security. However, increases in household size, the dependency ratio, and total household expenditure result in a lower probability of households being food security. The findings therefore suggest that food insecurity can be alleviated by the extension of provisions towards integrated farming and self-sufficiency, better family planning programs and child care, better education, and managing household income and expenditure for food consumption. In addition, increases in farm size, use of family labor and use of fertilizer can further enhance food security.