Study identifies best entrepreneurial cities in Michigan

Any city can be entrepreneurial, that's the whole point, right? But what cities rise to the top? Well, you're in luck. A study just released by the University of Michigan-Dearborn found exactly that.

Excerpt:

The 2008 “eCities” study (also called "the Entrepreneurial Cities Index”) found that many southeast Michigan municipalities “are hard at work attracting, cultivating, building and holding entrepreneurial firms.”

The study, conducted by iLabs, the Center for Innovation Research in the UM-Dearborn School of Management, focuses on entrepreneurship because of its importance to expansion and diversification of Michigan’s regional economies and the impact small businesses have on job creation.

This second annual UM-Dearborn study found that successful communities work with entrepreneurial businesses to determine their needs and carry out relationship marketing akin to private sector firms.

“Economic development agencies, local chambers of commerce, and state agencies all are instrumental in helping bring firms to a community,” said Timothy Davis, director of iLabs. “Successful local governments also have professional and empowered staffs who champion new businesses, leading them to solutions and acting as a conduit for networking.”

Read the entire article here.
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