The Alliance for Science & Technology Research in America (ASTRA) has released a new tool aimed at allowing regions in the United States to compare innovation locally to other regions.  After some initial concern, I have corresponded about the tool with ASTRA's Vice President for Research, Robin Gaster.  Robin explained, and should be updating the website, that this was a demonstration project and data hasn't been updated in two years.  With that, on the positive, the interface is flexible at letting you create custom reports comparing different regions.  On the negative, I have had some difficulty in navigating their interface, particularly in finding details such as what the source data is for a particular variable.  As such, I am going to comment on one component of their index, firms and establishments, which are listed as outputs of the innovation process.

For the firms and establishments component, ASTRA appears to use the following data (although I can't find series names, in most cases the actual series are obvious because of limited data availability on the topics):

• Nonemployer firms - number, Published: 2005      
• Nonemployer firms - receipts, Published: 2005    
• Business closings (% of all firms), Published: 2005    
• New companies per 1000 workers, Published: 2005    
• Firms by state - 0 employees - 1995-2002 Firm Size Data by State and Metropolitan Statistical Area, Published: 0000 (although this is what they state it must be a mistake)  
• Firms by state - all firms - 1995-2002 Firm Size Data by State and Metropolitan Statistical Area, Published: 1999 (although this is what they state it must be a mistake since data is through 2002)     
• Firms by state - 100-499 employees - 1995-2002 Firm Size Data by State and Metropolitan Statistical Area, Published: 1999 (although this is what they state it must be a mistake since data is through 2002) 
• Firms by state - 10-19 employees - 1995-2002 Firm Size Data by State and Metropolitan Statistical Area, Published: 1999 (although this is what they state it must be a mistake since data is through 2002)  
• Firms by state - 1-4 employees - 1995-2002 Firm Size Data by State and Metropolitan Statistical Area, Published: 1999 (although this is what they state it must be a mistake since data is through 2002)  
• Firms by state - 20-99 employees - 1995-2002 Firm Size Data by State and Metropolitan Statistical Area, Published: 1999 (although this is what they state it must be a mistake since data is through 2002) 
• Firms by state - 5-9 employees - 1995-2002 Firm Size Data by State and Metropolitan Statistical Area, Published: 1999 (although this is what they state it must be a mistake since data is through 2002) 
• Business bankruptcies by state Department of Justice, Published: 2006    

I am troubled that regions will not heed Robin's warning and take this data as demonstrating what they can pull because in most cases the data presented are several years out of date.  On all the state level firm size data, much better information is available from the Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy, in most cases going through 2006.  Nonemployer statistics should be available through 2006 or 2007.  And relatively recent data available at the state level which should allow for tracking of business dynamics patterns from Census or the Bureau of Labor Statistics don't seem to be considered. 

Thus I see this Regional Innovation Index tool as a good exploratory tool on the types of data one might consider in evaluation innovation at the regional level but users should realize that new data developments are not included here.  .