While recent research has produced valuable insights regarding underrepresented entrepreneurs, this literature has largely overlooked one key group: entrepreneurs from rural (as opposed to urban) areas. In this paper, we theorize that rural entrepreneurs face a "liability of ruralness," meaning they face unique challenges and biases that urban entrepreneurs do not. We test our theory using a multi-method approach across three complementary studies using large-scale data from Kickstarter, a proprietary dataset of rural vs. urban entrepreneurs in the Eastern United States, and an online experiment with entrepreneurs. We find evidence of the existence of the liability of ruralness across all three studies. We also find, however, that entrepreneurs can overcome the liability of ruralness via role congruity or strategic distinctiveness. As a whole, our findings make fresh contributions to the literatures on underrepresented entrepreneurship, role congruity, and optimal distinctiveness.
