4/16/2009 5:33:00 AM By
E.J. Reedy
Understanding and interpretting data in times of big change, like we have been seeing in the last couple of quarters, is a difficult. I wanted to highlight the conference proceedings of the Association of Public Data Users here as their focus last fall was on understanding federal data in a lot of different topics that could provide context to much of this change. I would argue they missed most of the data which relates directly to entrepreneurship or innovation, but I will let users make that judgement.
4/16/2009 2:09:00 AM By
E.J. Reedy
The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council has released its annual ranking of U.S. states on a range taxes from personal income and capital gains to corporate, unemployment, internet, and gas taxes. Their ranking puts the top states as 1) South Dakota, 2) Nevada, 3) Wyoming, 4) Washington, and 5) Texas with the bottom ranking states (including Washington, DC) as 47) California, 48) Maine, 49) Minnesota, 50) New Jersey, and 51) District of Columbia.
4/15/2009 10:01:00 AM By
E.J. Reedy
4/15/2009 6:34:00 AM By
E.J. Reedy
George Mason, Clemson, and the College of Charleston are sponsoring a workshop this fall for researchers doing work around the topic of "business creation." Most of this research will come from the Panel Study on Entrepreneurial Dynamics, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, or one of the many scholarly projects that have been inspired in-part by this line of research. The conference will take place October 23-25 in Arlington, Virginia, with a deadline for scholars interested in participating of September 1, 2009.
This particular workshop has the following focus:
- Scholars analyzing longitudinal data sets on business creation will have an opportunity to meet and discuss their efforts as “works in progress” as they are developed for submission to peer review journals. Those working with panel data from Australia, Canada, China, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway,
and Sweden are encouraged to attend.
- Those designing and implementing longitudinal studies of business creation will have an opportunity to learn from the experiences of those who have already implemented such panel studies.
From conversations with some of the organizers and the language of the call, this workshop will have a heavy emphasis on helping researchers in the process of creating their own country-specific longitudinal data collection efforts to get off of the ground through peer exchange and harmonization with other efforts. Read more about the workshop.
4/14/2009 10:48:00 AM By
E.J. Reedy
We just finished up a research webinar on the new data available in the Kauffman Firm Survey, along with two research presentations.
- Alicia Robb - Overview of release of the third-follow-up data and new questions for the fourth follow-up data
- Robert Scott - Plastic Capital: Credit Card Debt and New Small Business Survival
- Paroma Sanyal - Specificity, Agency Costs and New Firm Financing
View the recorded webinar
4/13/2009 8:46:00 AM By
E.J. Reedy
There have been a number of interesting papers coming out recently trying to provide some frameworks for policy that supports high-growth businesses.
- Henrekson, Magnus and Johansson, Dan,Competencies and Institutions Fostering High-Growth Firms(July 4, 2008). IFN Working Paper No. 757. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1155480
The last one was released in mid-2008 but which I only became aware of in the last week comes from the Europe INNOVA project of the European Commission's Directorate General Enterprise and Industry. I wanted to point out with this particular study, that the report starts with a call for more research data sets on high-growth firms. The panel, like this author, believes that many of our policy limitations in this area are the direct result of lack of an adequate research data infrastructure.
4/10/2009 11:35:00 AM By
E.J. Reedy
4/10/2009 3:30:00 AM By
E.J. Reedy
Google is moving it's collaborative office tools towards being able to handle "secure data." See related article. While we haven't seen any actualy security reports on this functionality, it could not only solve problems for many corporations but also for many scholars looking to do collaborative research but while in an environment which meets strict confidentiality rules required by international review boards and other institutional practices. Currently, we use one remote secure data provider, the University of Chicago NORC Data Enclave, to provide remote, secure use of research data to a community of scholars for the Kauffman Firm Survey.
4/10/2009 2:16:00 AM By
E.J. Reedy
4/9/2009 10:17:00 AM By
E.J. Reedy
We have been watching recently as President Obama appointed Vivek Kundra the new federal CIO. He was formerly in a similar position for the city of Washington, DC, and was touted for opening up Washingtonl, DC, to the people in innovative ways. As such, much anticipation is being heaped on data.gov (see article on Slashdot and other transcripts of interviews), a new website which is touted as the place where any non-private, government data will be made available to the public. We will be following this push closely.
Wired magazine has a really interesting piece out on the topic of the opening up of government data. While they are getting into a lot of territory which I am not familiar with, my concern has been the lack of will among government agencies (usually because of underlying statute) to share information that can help us to understand things like innovation and entrepreneurship. Many countries have been able to set goals for data which serve research and policy functions. While the Nordic countries have always been strong, recently, I have been impressed with Canada's modernization of their statistical infrastructure. Change is possible.
Wired has gone a step further in setting up an Open Up Government Data wiki to track data which should be opened up for the benefit of society. I wouldn't have thought of a wiki for this purpose but it's really quite interesting.
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Developing better data is part of Kauffman's long-term strategy for advancing better research and policy on entrepreneurship and innovation. Data Maven is place you can connect with new data developments, provide us feedback on possible new projects, and contribute to the community seeking to improve entrepreneurship and innovation measurement.
E.J. Reedy is a manager in Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation. Learn more ...
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