This document summarizes discussions from a November 2017 gathering of thought leaders on entrepreneurship. It outlines several roles for research in informing communities and empowering local development. Research should provide historical performance data, opportunities analyses, and insights into building entrepreneurial ecosystems and talent. Impact measurement frameworks are needed to properly evaluate strategies and investments and justify redirecting resources toward entrepreneurship-focused development. Stories and case studies can complement numbers. A national entrepreneurship research agenda is proposed involving collaboration, data sharing, and attracting new researchers to build evidence supporting entrepreneurship-led development.

1. Don Macke
April 26, 2018
CU RCAP & Support Staff
Cutting Edge Research

2. Moving Forward…

3. 2006-2016
Point to Point
Change
Analysis

4. United States
Net Job Growth
+48 Million Jobs
31% Job Growth
Stage 1
Stage 2
2-9 Employees
10-99 Employees
26 million
20 million
53%
42%
Combined Smaller Ventures 46 million 95%
Stage 3
Stage 4
100-499 Employees
500+ Employees
2.6 million
(1.0) million
5%
---
“66% of Jobs by Locally Owned Ventures”

5. Nebraska
Net Job Growth
+351,869Jobs
32% Job Growth
Stage 1
Stage 2
2-9 Employees
10-99 Employees
162,981
153,407
46%
44%
Combined Smaller Ventures 316,388 90%
Stage 3
Stage 4
Self Employed
100-499 Employees
500+ Employees
-------------
26,113
2,549
6,819
7.4%
0.7%
1.9%
Combined 35,481 10%

6. November 2017
Thought Leaders Gathering
• Focus on the Movement
• Small Group of Thoughtful
Leaders
• Three Topics…
– Communities on the Edge
– Professional Development
– Research

7. CU RCAP & Support Staff
Research Roles

8. Inform Communities
• Historical Performance
• Development Opportunities
• Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
• Entrepreneurial Talent
Research should empower
communities to better understand
their development opportunities
and how growing an
entrepreneurial economy and
society can advance prosperity.

9. Percent Age Cohort Change
0.0%
-1.3%
-63.7%
-51.4%
35.0%
-6.8%
-3.6%
-4.0%
-8.4%
-5.3%
-80.0% -60.0% -40.0% -20.0% 0.0% 20.0% 40.0%
10-14
15-19
20-24
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59 2000-2010

10. Nonfarm Proprietors’
Income & Employment
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
$0
$5,000
$10,000
$15,000
$20,000
$25,000
$30,000
$35,000
$40,000
1969
1971
1973
1975
1977
1979
1981
1983
1985
1987
1989
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
2003
2005
2007
2009
2011
2013
2015
Nonfarm proprietors' income (thousands of dollars)
Nonfarm proprietors employment (number of jobs)

11. Track Activity & Outcome
• Documentation
• Evaluation
• Stories
We need accepted frameworks and
protocols for documenting and
evaluating how E-strategies and
investments are working.
But numbers are not enough, we
also need more aggressive capture
of stories.

12. Holt County – One Story

13. Kansas – Going to Scale

14. Measuring Impact
• EcoDevo Smoke & Mirrors
• Robust & Honest Impact
• ROI
• Redirection of Capital
In America, we continue to spend
most of our development dollars
on attraction, competition, and
corporate subsidies. We need
strong impact measurement to
enable resource redirection.

15. Stakeholder – the E-Movement
In order to make entrepreneurship
the foundation of all development as
Brian Dabson envisioned... We need
to cultivate local, state, and national
stakeholders empowering them to
make the hard decisions to funding
entrepreneurship.
Research is a foundational asset in
building a national entrepreneurship
movement in America.

16. November 2017 Framework
Gather Data
Establish Key Research Questions
Set Metrics
Development Systems
for Capturing Data
Case Studies
Communication Strategies
Get the Thought Leader Summit Notes…
November 2017
Entrepreneurship
on the Edges

17. A National E-Research Agenda
1. Network
2. Collaboration
3. Platform for Sharing
4. Learning Opportunities
5. Shared Evolving Practices
6. Empower Existing Researchers
7. Attract/Develop New Researchers
8. Funding
9. An Agenda
10. A Serious Commitment

18. Don Macke
don@e2mail.org
www.energizingentrepreneurs.org

19. Our Panelists
Mark Muro – Senior Fellow
The Brookings Institution
Dane Stangler – Chief Policy Officer
Startup Genome
Kelly Edmiston – Senior Economist
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City