Posted: July 26, 2019
Smaller and rural businesses innovate in ways that are often missed by traditional measures of innovation and, as a result, little is known about their innovation activity. However, through a funding program administered by the Northeast Center in collaboration with the USDA Economic Research Service, three research teams have broadened our understanding of how rural businesses are innovating and the effects such innovation is having on communities. With the goal of distilling some of their findings for a general audience, the Northeast Center is launching a new series of research briefs. The first focuses on a new, broad measure of innovation that provides insight into the effects of innovation on the economic health of communities and businesses.
The brief, titled "Innovation, Broadly Measured, and Its Effects on Business and Community Economic Health," describes research conducted by Brian Whitacre (Oklahoma State University), Devon Meadowcroft (formerly at Oklahoma State, now at NERCRD), and Roberto Gallardo (Purdue University).
Their findings were published last month in Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, in a paper titled "Firm and Regional Economic Outcomes Associated with a New, Broad Measure of Business Innovation," and were also the subject of a recent Daily Yonder article.
