The Office of Advocacy has conducted a number of research projects that contain useful data for rural areas. However, rural practitioners need even more data. To determine the topic areas of greatest importance to rural development practitioners, members of the NRDP Listserv were contacted. Members of the partnership and Advocacy staff identified the following as topics for further research.
General
- Characteristics and demographics of the owners of rural small businesses.
- The number of rural small businesses.
- The number of employees working for rural small businesses.
- The growth rate of rural small businesses compared to the growth rate of urban small businesses.
- The types of businesses that exist in rural communities and their structures compared to the types of businesses that exist in urban communities.
- The success/failure rates of rural small businesses.
- A comparison of success/failure rates of rural and urban small businesses.
- The reasons behind failure rates of rural small businesses.
- The correlation between the number of small businesses in a community, the unemployment rate, various types of government assistance, and commuting patterns for rural small businesses. How those patters differ from urban businesses.
- The impact of the global market place (Internet and e-commerce) on rural businesses.
- How rural communities have addressed/overcome challenges to assist small businesses in participating and succeeding in the global economy.
- The types of businesses that can succeed away from population centers.
Rural Small Business Financing
- The sources of financing rural small businesses' new or existing ventures.
- The average loan size to rural small businesses.
- The type of rural businesses that have been financed by small business leans.
- The share of SBA loans to rural areas other than for "Disaster Declarations."
- The type of banks that exist in rural areas and the types of loans they make.
- The success rate of rural small businesses in accessing capital - equity investment and borrowing - compared to their urban and suburban peers.
Entrepreneurship in Rural Areas
- The most important factors for successful rural entrepreneurs. How these factors compare to those of successful urban entrepreneurs.
- Entrepreneurship as an effective rural development strategy.
- Demographics and characteristics of rural entrepreneurs.
- Ways to train rural entrepreneurs.
- Family history of rural entrepreneurs.
- How rural communities have addressed/overcome challenges to encourage the development of entrepreneurship in rural areas.
Economic Development and Small Business Development
- The economic development groups that exist in rural areas; their activities regarding industry recruitment, job creation, incentives, and small business recruitment and incentives (including tax and related incentives).
- The effectiveness of strategies attempting to encourage community development through cultural history or significant natural wonders.
- The success of towns located near remote rural cultural, historical, or recreational amenities in building viable economic strategies around these amenities.
- The availability of training for entrepreneurs, employees, or potential employees of rural small businesses.
- The role community colleges play in providing entrepreneurship training to potential small business owners.
- The responsiveness of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA).
- Improvements in responsiveness since the Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) have been in place.
- Whether Small Business Development Centers are providing services to help small business owners with initial start-up difficulties.
Rural Health Care
- The type of access rural small businesses have to employee health care benefits.
- The cost of benefits to employers and employees.
- The barriers small businesses face or incentives they are offered when they pool together as a group for competitive insurance rates.
- How rural communities have addressed and/or overcome healthcare challenges to assist small businesses to participate in the global economy and succeed.
Rural Transportation
- Ways to help small businesses that provide transportation to rural areas succeed.
Rural Telecommunications
- Qualify and quantify the "digital divide" as it affects rural small businesses.
- How the "digital divide" effectively differs by business ownership between socioeconomic groups in rural communities.
- How the availability of wide bandwidth communications infrastructure affects rural businesses.
- How rural communities have addressed and/or overcome telecommunication challenges to assist small businesses to participate in the global economy and succeed.
Information courtesy of the Small Business Administration.
