Economic Development Organizations

The Evidence Network provides impact measurement for economic development organizations, chambers of commerce, boards of trade and others that provide services intended to stimulate economic growth in a particular region. Economic developers in public, private and nonprofit organizations are found in virtually every community, region and country around the globe. Their services vary widely, yet they have a common goal of stimulating and supporting firms and the economies of geographic areas in which they are located.

Strengths of these organizations come directly from the services they offer, but also from their communities of interest, for example, members that provide volunteer and other services. Their services range from provision of information and advice, promotion, financing, and business or real estate services to building consensus and enabling networking. Members or stakeholders often provide coaching, planning or other expertise derived from experiences in the private sector.

Challenge

Economic development organizations, chambers of commerce, boards of trade and other like entities provide services to a wide range of firms, for example, firms of various sizes, from various industries, and firms subject to different business forces. This means that client or member perspectives are likely to vary widely.  Because such organizations usually add value by improving the overall environment, rather than focusing on specific interest groups or individual firms, their impact on any single firm may be small while their overall aggregate impact on all firms may be significant.

The Evidence Network's solution

Measures available in The Evidence Network's survey questions focus on the broad-based services of these organizations. For example, The Evidence Network provides impact evidence on promotion and influence activities, by eliciting impact evidence on an innovation enabler's activities aiming to raise regional awareness, to promote infrastructure developments, to market internationally, and to influence government policies. Examples of other areas that are addressed by The Evidence Network include facilitation of business-to-business linkages, business-to-research linkages, financing and provision of business services.

The mission and service performance results are aggregated for all clients, making them particularly useful to assess overall impact on the diverse clients of these organizations.