Abstract
In many developing countries rural industrialization is increasingly perceived to offer an escape from the predicament of diminishing returns to labour in agriculture on the one hand and low employment elasticity in large-scale manufacturing on the other hand. The present study explores the economic, institutional, social and other factors which have proved instrumental/detrimental to a healthy development of rural industries in four Asian economies; Taiwan, China, Vietnam and Thailand. In the concluding section of the study the main ingredients of success are distinguished and the nature of their influence on rural industrial development is discussed.