Why isn't entrepreneurship a more mainstream development strategy in America?
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| Macke |
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During the 1990s, I had the honor and opportunity to work with Governor Nelson and Lieutenant Governor Maxine Moul in Nebraska. I served as the Executive Director of the Nebraska Rural Development Commission and served on the Governor's cabinet.
This was a challenging but rich experience and it was during this time that I began to seriously question the merits of interstate business attraction and competition. During this time, Nebraska was in the "attraction" game in a big way. Under the previous administration, the state lost the ConAgra corporate headquarters to Chicago leading to the creation of massive state attraction incentives. I witnessed firsthand how "footloose" corporations were more than willing to let states offer abatements in hopes of attracting them to their state. In the end, as we learned to suspect, other more logical location factors, drove ultimate decisions, not abatements. Nebraska was used more than once to drive up the stakes in other states.
These experiences drove me to investigate entrepreneurship as a better development investment. Ultimately this led to my work with the Kauffman Foundation and the creation of the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship.
Recently Dell Gines with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City asked folks,
"Why isn't entrepreneurship a more mainstream development strategy in America?"
Read my response and share your thoughts. Contact Don at
don@e2mail.org.
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| Markley at Regards to Rural |
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Rural Opportunities Initiative (ROI). Deb Markley had the privilege of speaking to Business Oregon's new cohort of ROI communities at a pre-conference session for the Regards to Rural conference. Each of these communities is taking on the challenge of entrepreneur-focused economic development, with strong support from Janet Soto, Business Oregon's Entrepreneurship Strategist. Their energy for the journey ahead was inspiring! It's an exciting new initiative for the state and something for all of us to watch.
During the conference, Janet Soto and Deb Markley collaborated on a session,
An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: What is it? How do you build on
e? The session drew on recently completed research for the Appalachian Regional Commission to identify ecosystem elements and to provide a tool for participants to assess their own ecosystem.
On May 22
nd, Deb Markley and Leslie Schaller (
ACENet) presented a keynote for the State of the Region conference in Athens, Ohio. The keynote set the stage for the summit's theme -
Changing the Narrative: Using Rural Wealth Creation to Transform the Region - by sharing a framework for doing economic development differently and demonstrating the application of that framework through ACENet's work building a regional food system.
Deb Markley had her first immersion as a
BALLE Local Economy Fellow in mid-April in beautiful Evins Mill, TN. It was our first opportunity to get to know each other and the important work that these rural-focused Fellows are doing all across the country to build stronger local economies. There is great innovation in rural America and Canada - we should all be watching and learning!
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Creating Breakout Innovation. What does it take to create bold innovation and powerful solutions to pressing community problems? This Stanford Social Innovation Review
article explores ideas and research.
2017's Best & Worst State Economies. Find out how your state stacked up and why it matters in this article, including links to full reports.
Micropolitan Success Stories from the Heartland. The Walton Family Foundation shared a report featuring case studies of how smaller communities in the Heartland have outperformed the nation.
2018 Eship Summit. Registration is now open for The Kauffman Foundation's summit July 11-13 in Kansas City. Visit the event
website for more info or to register.
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Don Macke
Deb Markley
Jun 11 Grafton, WV Meeting with
WV Hub E Community Coaches
Jul 15-19 Santa Fe, NM Second
BALLE Immersion
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Focus on Locus
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