This report presents an assessment of the capital market in a nine parish region of central Louisiana (Cenla). The report begins with an overview of the region’s economy and capital market as described by the secondary data available for the region. It then shares insights into the Cenla capital market gained from interviews with
bankers, entrepreneurs, and service providers. The gaps in the Cenla capital market that were identified by the assessment team, based on both interviews and secondary data analysis, are described along with some recommendations for ways of addressing these gaps in the future.

This publication describes the Center's approach to case study analysis and the importance of case studies to measuring your success and improving program performance.

This summary publication presents the highlights from an evaluation of the Appalachian Regional Commission's Entrepreneurship Initiative (1997-2005).

From 1997 through 2005, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) invested nearly $43 million in a ground-breaking program to stimulate and support entrepreneurship across Appalachia. The Entrepreneurship Initiative (EI) was the first large scale attempt to give greater focus to homegrown business development as a regional economic development strategy. The Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI), the RUPRI Center for Rural
Entrepreneurship, EntreWorks Consulting, and RTI were commissioned by ARC in 2006 to conduct an evaluation of EI in terms both of outcomes achieved by a sample of funded projects and of broader policy impacts across the region. The evaluation team undertook literature reviews, reviewed project files for a sample of 114 projects, conducted phone interviews with 36 stakeholders and experts, developed a metrics framework, completed interviews with project staff associated with 88 projects, made four site visits, and conducted a meta-analysis of the outcomes and impacts. The team’s work was informed by a three-person advisory committee of leading academic experts on entrepreneurship – Dr. Thomas Lyons, Dr. Edward Malecki, and Dr. Jonathan Potter.

This report details the findings from this evaluation.

Deborah M. Markley, David L. Barkley, and R. David Lamie authored a series of reports on the use of e-commerce by rural entrepreneurs and small business owners. This publication presents case studies of 25 firms, representing various regions of the country and various industry sectors (e.g., manufacturing, services, and trade). In
addition, the team conducted interviews with three service providers who helped some of the case study businesses adopt and use e-commerce.

The purpose of the overall project was to provide case studies of rural businesses that have increased sales, profits, and/or employment, as well as those who have expanded markets and customer relationships by using e-commerce. The case studies focus on locally-owned rural businesses as opposed to branch plants or franchises. The selected businesses include rural firms of different sizes and in different stages of business development; bricks-and-mortar stores and virtual businesses; firms focusing ecommerce activity on businesses and those focused on consumers; and firms from different types of rural communities.

The RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship was commissioned by the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) to provide advice on state policy recommendations to create a strong system of support for entrepreneurs and small businesses in Kentucky. This report, authored by Deborah Markley and Brian Dabson (Vice President and COO of RUPRI), details the existing entrepreneur and small business support infrastructure in the state and makes recommendations for strengthening the system over time.

County governments and elected officials can and do play a fundamental role in encouraging economic development. In the new economy, local leaders increasingly are turning to entrepreneurship as a core economic
development strategy in the place of traditional tactics such as industrial recruitment and business retention programs that have not achieved expected results, particularly in rural areas. Coupled with this, there are measurably more experienced entrepreneurship development practitioners who are willing to share lessons learned with those who are just now embracing entrepreneurship as a development strategy.

This guide is intended to extend to county government leaders useful information, insights, and examples about how to energize an entrepreneurial economy, and achieve more dynamic and successful economic development through entrepreneurship. The guide was also designed as an introductory companion to the book, Energizing
Entrepreneurs: Charting a Course for Rural Communities, a partnership effort of the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and the Heartland Center for Leadership Development.

In the late 1990s, Northern Initiatives (NI), a regional economic development organization working in the Upper Peninsula region of Michigan, received one of the first Program Related Investments made by the Kellogg Foundation. In 2007 and 2009, the Center was invited to evaluate the impact of that investment on the evolution of the organization, specifically in terms of the development of their lending capacity, the critical role played by technical assistance/consulting as they worked with the region's entrepreneurs, and the increasingly active role played by NI in regional economic development. This report lays out the history of the organization, its development over time, and the challenges and opportunities it faced. The lessons learned highlighted here should be of value to other community and regional leaders who are undertaking similar efforts in their own unique parts of rural America.