If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The paper aims to examine the relationship between broadband availability and firm establishment growth rates by employment size and by industry to assess the impact of broadband on small business growth in Kentucky. Design/methodology/approach -The paper uses a modified growth model as the theoretical foundation for empirical analysis. Findings -Broadband availability does increase growth in small and medium-sized businesses. While broadband does tend to affect specific industries differently, the scope of the affects is limited to only a few industries: broadband encourages growth in small manufacturing firms, but discourages growth in financial services.Research limitations/implications -The scope of analysis is limited to the period of 2003-2005, while some of the counties in Kentucky did not have sizable broadband deployment until 2005. Owing to the lack of data availability, the current research does not consider demand-side factors, though several industries considered are likely to be demand-driven rather than cost-driven. Originality/value -Utilizing unique broadband saturation data for Kentucky counties, this study presents ex-post analysis of the effect of broadband deployment on local economies.

Purpose – As an economic development strategy, entrepreneurship policies should target innovative activities – those which Schumpeter described as leading to new goods, production methods, markets, input sources, or new industries. However, popular entrepreneurship proxies, such as firm births (<500 employees) and sole proprietorships, capture multiple types of entrepreneurship which may have conflicting qualities. To address the need for more accurate measures of Schumpeterian activity, indices are constructed to specifically measure the relative amount of Schumpeterian activity among US states. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Four composite indices of Schumpeterian activity are constructed using different methods to combine variables related to innovative activity into single indicator, since there is uncertainty about the weighting of dimensions: principal component analysis (PCA), factor analysis (FA), data envelopment analysis and equal weights. Robustness checks were used to compare state rankings across indices. These indices were also compared to common entrepreneurship proxies and real GDP to demonstrate and justify their measurement of Schumpeterian activity. Findings – The results show that the Schumpeterian Activity Indices (SAIs) similarly rank states and measure phenomena different from the common proxies of entrepreneurship. Furthermore, these indices better predict GDP than the common proxies. Lastly, state rankings based upon the SAIs support previous research suggesting that innovation and agglomeration economies are interrelated. Originality/value – The paper demonstrates a methodology for constructing a measure of innovative activity, which is necessary to develop and evaluate entrepreneurship policy for economic development.

The academic literature on economic development incentive programs has generated mixed results, though most studies conclude that incentives do not lead to economic growth. Oklahoma has received high praise for its innovative Quality Jobs program, because it provides cash payments (not tax incentives) and emphasizes jobs with high wages and benefits. However, few evaluations of the program’s success in growing the state’s economy have been made. This study employs multivariate regression and mixed-pair analysis techniques and concludes that the economic growth between 1990 and 2005 was not statistically different between Oklahoma communities with businesses participating in the Quality Jobs program and those that were not participating. There was, however, a statistical difference in median household income growth when Oklahoma communities with participating businesses were compared with similar Kansas communities.

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