This research study was undertaken by the University of Michigan Business School in collaboration with the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA), Ohio University, and the Southern Technology Council in response to a request for proposals issued by the Economic Development Administration. The purpose of the study was to determine the best methodologies that could be used by individual incubators to assess the impacts of their programs on their local communities. In addition, we pilot tested the research methods on a representative national sample of 50 incubator programs, stratified by type of incubator.

There has been much attention given to the growing activism of institutional investors in corporate governance. However, past research has been unable to establish a consistent relationship between institutional investors and firm behavior. This may have occurred because institutional investors have been assumed to be a homogenous group possessing the same objectives and behaviors. For a sample of 271 U.S. Fortune 500 firms for the years 1990 to 1992, we categorized the firms' institutional investors into four distinct types: pension funds, mutual funds, banks, and insurance companies. We found significantly different relationships between these categories of institutional investors and firms' strategic investments.

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Those who would establish high-growth businesses (HGBs) in rural settings face significant challenges. We report findings from more than 80 in-depth interviews regarding the obstacles that rural HGBs face and identify approaches for overcoming these obstacles. First, interviews confirm the need for improved access to a full range of financing options to support HGBs across different development stages. Second, HGBs need in-depth, sophisticated technical assistance, which is generally unavailable in rural areas. Finally, cooperation among financial and technical service providers is vital to program success. Based on these findings, a model is proposed for successful development of HGBs in rural areas.