Kentucky leaps, Ohio stagnates in state entrepreneurship index by Andy Brownfield Cincinnati business Courier A new state entrepreneurship index from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln lists Kentucky at No. 4 among the 50 states and Ohio at No. 42. Kentucky was the most improved state on the index, jumping from 49 in 2012 to 4 in 2013. Ohio fell from 36 in 2012 to 42 in 2013. The index ranked states based on five different factors: net establishment growth, net establishment growth per capita, the number of new businesses per capita, patents per thousand persons and average income of non-farm business owners. “Many of them (indicies) will focus solely on one of our five components, particularly the component for business formation. That’s obviously an important concept,” Eric Thompson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln director of Bureau of Business Research and index co-author, told me. “However, we thought it’d be useful to have an index that looked at a broader set of factors.” For example, patents per thousand people is supposed to gauge growth in innovation and technology in states. The two measures of net establishment growth – overall and per capita – are supposed to measure how many new businesses survive. The per capita measure is supposed to adjust for population migration, Thompson said. “This is something that affects Nebraska and may affect Ohio as well. A lot of times Northern states will lose jobs to Southern states because of the climate,” he said. The Nebraska index is data driven and doesn’t take into account the business climate in each state, things such as tax burden or incentives, Thompson said. Kentuckians were pleased with the new index. “Small businesses are the backbone of our economy,” Gov. Steve Beshear said in a news release. “Over the past several years, this administration has focused on developing innovative programs and offering dynamic services to help these growing companies every step of the way. Even though this is a significant jump, I’m not surprised we’re producing great results. Kentucky is a tremendous place to grow a business.” Kentucky has done a better job recently of encouraging entrepreneurship and partnering with institutions to take some of the fear out of starting a new business, said Rodney D’Souza, director of Northern Kentucky University’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “One of the main reasons people hesitate to start a business is because they’re scared. They’re not sure what’s going to happen, they’re not sure about the resources around them,” D’Souza told me. “What I’ve seen in Kentucky, they’ve done a really good job working with the universities in the state saying, ‘You know what, it shouldn’t be scary to stat a new business, and here’s how we can help.’” Kentucky ranked highly in net establishment growth and net establishment growth per capita, ranking second and first respectively. However, it ranked in the middle of the pack in new businesses per capita and proprietor income, at 34 and 33 respectively. Kentucky ranked 42 for number of patents per thousand persons. Ohio ranked low for net establishment growth and new businesses per capita, at 43 and 48 respectively. It fared slightly better in net establishment growth per capita, where it ranked 38. However, Ohio ranked highly in innovation, 20th in terms of patents per thousand persons and 24th in terms of income for proprietors.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 17:16:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015