Rural Entrepreneurship Update

Our examination of how rural communities nurture entrepreneurship is expanding, thanks to a new grant from the Appalachia Regional Commission. This grant adds to the efforts already underway in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa through support from the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. These two companion projects focus on how small towns encourage new business start-up and expansion, and what lessons might be transferable into other settings.

The Heartland Center has targeted for case studies several small towns in each of the Midwest states based on information gathered through a survey and interviews conducted earlier this year. During the next several months the ARC connection will expand the research into selected states in Appalachia. Plans for the research include a publication and a training program for rural community leaders to study the formal and informal ways successful communities grow their local economies.