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Week of February 19 - 25, 2007

EntrepreneurshipWeek USA to Kick Off February 24 with Stars from Coast to Coast

EntrepreneurshipWeek USA, the initiative to inspire young people everywhere to explore their potential as entrepreneurs and innovators funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and organized by the Public Forum Institute, has attracted prominent Americans from elected officials to sports figures and leading entrepreneurs. Dozens of member of Congress are joining the effort including Congressman John Dingell (D-MI), Congresswoman Kay Granger (R-TX), Senator John Ensign (R-NV), Senator John Kerrey (D-MA) and Senator Christopher Bond (R-MO). Administration officials like Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao and SBA Administrator Steven Preston will participate in a policy summit in Washington, DC. Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota (the chair and vice-chair of the National Governors Association) are leading a group of governors endorsing The Week. Notable participants from the sporting world include Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton, Shane Battier of the NBA’s Houston Rockets, and Stephen A. Smith, host of ESPN’s “Quite Frankly.” Pop culture celebrities like Randall Pinkett, season four winner of The Apprentice and Judson Laipply, who danced his way to fame on YouTube, have been involved from the outset. Intellectual leaders like Thomas Friedman, columnist for the New York Times, will be speaking on campuses throughout the country. And experienced entrepreneurs like Paul Orfalea, the founder of Kinko’s, and Richard Caruso, the 2006 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, are scheduling appearances at a full slate of activities throughout The Week.

Find an EntrepreneurshipWeek USA activity in your community.

Schramm Selected by Commerce Secretary to Chair Innovation Panel

Last week, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez identified Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, as the chairman of a new advisory committee of business and academic leaders that will seek ways to measure the effects of innovation on the economy. The Measuring Innovation in the 21st Century Economy Advisory Committee is comprised of 10 CEOs and five academics, including Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano, 3M CEO George Buckley and Wal-Mart Vice Chairman John Menzer.

Schramm will assume chairmanship of the Advisory Committee at its first meeting on February 22 at 2 pm at the Wyndham Washington Hotel, 1400 M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. The meeting will be open to the public and registration is available online at www.innovationmetrics.gov.

Economic Plans for the New Congress

With the new Democratic majority in place on Capitol Hill, a number of DC-based think tanks are hoping to influence the economic agendas of Congressional Democrats. New reports from various think tanks have been coming fast and furious over the past few weeks. Here is a sampling:

Progressive Policy Institute, “Healthy Factories, Anxious Workers: Or, Why Lou Dobbs is Wrong,” by Edward Gresser, February 2007.
This report takes on CNN’s Lou Dobbs and other economic populists who advocate protectionist solutions to America’s economic anxieties. It contends that the solution is not closed borders, but instead requires commitment to an aggressive set of strategies to promote American competitiveness.

Economic Policy Institute, The Agenda for Shared Prosperity.
This effort encompasses a whole series of studies and events sponsored by EPI, a labor-backed think tank. Recent reports include a plan to provide health insurance to all Americans, and a restructuring of trade policies to better support workers and to end the misuse of incentives for business.

The Third Way Project, “The New Rules Economy: A Policy Framework For the 21st Century,” by Anne Kim, Adam Solomon, Bernard L. Schwartz, Jim Kessler, and Stephen Rose. February 2007.
This report contends that the American middle class is doing better than many critics claim. They face economic anxieties, but smart policies, that promote higher education and more flexible work patterns, will help middle class Americans continue to build wealth and prosperity.

Where America Stands: Entrepreneurship

The Council on Competitiveness has released a new report on entrepreneurship in the United States, Where America Stands: Entrepreneurship. The report is the first part in a series of focused analyses on the high-impact drivers of U.S. innovation capacity and competitiveness. While U.S. entrepreneurial performance continues to lead the world by almost any measure, this analysis demonstrates that other nations are catching up to the United States in a variety of ways — and highlights that the U.S. environment for entrepreneurial activity faces its own challenges and opportunities in the 21st century. The national distribution of Where America Stands: Entrepreneurship is timed to coincide with the kickoff of EntrepreneurshipWeek USA – February 24-March 3, 2007 – and will be discussed at a related policy summit co-chaired by Council president Deborah L. Wince-Smith on Monday, February 26 in Washington, D.C. The Council on Competitiveness is a group of corporate CEOs, university presidents and labor leaders committed to the future prosperity of all Americans and enhanced U.S. competitiveness in the global economy through the creation of high-value economic activity in the United States.

Download Where America Stands: Entrepreneurship  or attend the EntrepreneurshipWeek USA Policy Summit and pick up a free copy.

What Explains New Firm Survival?

An interesting new research paper examines potential explanations for new firm survival. It seeks to compare US regions across two key criteria: their rates of new firm survival and the quality of local human capital. Does a high quality local workforce make it easier for new firms to survive? While many assume this to be the case, the causal patterns behind this relationship are somewhat unclear. The study yields several findings. Regions with lower high school drop-out rates and higher college attainment rates tend to have higher new firm survival rates. Findings regarding the intensity of local businesses were similarly interesting. The biggest impact on new firm formation rates is the intensity of other related businesses in a region. However, this intensity actually had a less positive effect on firm survival rates. In other words, industry intensity generates a lot of start-up activity, but these start-ups may not have very long lives.

Access the 2007 Max Planck Institute of Economics Working Paper, “The Determinants of New Firm Survival Across Regional Economies,” by Zoltan Acs, Catherine Armington, and Ting Zhang.

What do Nanotech Execs Need?

The future success of the nanotechnology industry will depend on the ability of firms to move quickly into high-volume manufacturing of nano materials and products. High volume manufacturing will be much more important to industry success than new R&D spending, according to a survey of more than 400 executives involved in nanomanufacturing. The survey was sponsored by Small Times magazine and the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. Executives are bullish on American nanotechnology capabilities as 67% see the US as the world’s leader in nano R&D. Only 7% believe that this lead is eroding. Executives also believe that government must play a strong role in the industry’s development. In particular, government agencies must effectively address the potential health and environmental risks of nanotechnology, while also investing in critical long-term research projects. At present, nanotech leaders believe that the greatest barriers to industry growth are lack of financing, intellectual property issues, and the shortage of available prototype facilities.

Read the article, “Survey Says: Manufacturing, Government Keys to US Success,” in the January/February 2007 issue of Small Times.

Local Effects of Offshoring

Most research on offshoring examines its effects on national economies or specific industrial sectors. A new Brookings Institution report examines service sector offshoring and its potential effects on US metropolitan areas. The study finds that the most vulnerable metro areas are those that are located in either the Northeast or the West and have high concentrations of information technology workers or back office jobs. Five metro areas—Boulder (CO), Lowell (MA), San Francisco (CA), San Jose (CA), and Stamford (CT)---are at the greatest risk and are projected to lose (between 2004 and 2015) anywhere from 3.1% to 4.3% of local jobs due to service sector offshoring. At-risk sectors include computer programming, software engineering, and data entry. While these numbers are worrisome, the overall job loss effects of service sector offshoring are fairly modest. Most major metro areas are projected to lose less than 2% of total jobs due to offshoring.

Access the February 2007 Brookings Institution report, “The Implications of Service Offshoring for Metropolitan Economies,” by Robert Atkinson and Howard Wial

The National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship, an initiative of the Public Forum Institute made possible by a grant from the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City. Through NDE-news, we bring you short summaries and analyses of various trends driving the innovation economy. Subscribe now to receive your weekly copy. Archived issues are available online. Links to the day's entrepreneurship stories from across the nation and around the world are posted each weekday on the NDE main page - bookmark it and stay informed about the latest entrepreneurship news.

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