Report Summary:

This report was prepared for ARC by the Rural Policy Research Institute's Center for Rural Entrepreneurship. This evaluation provides a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the Entrepreneurship Initiative's impact in terms of outcomes achieved by a substantial representative sample of ARC's investments and assesses the wider effects of the initiative on policy changes and practices across the Region. The Entrepreneurship Initiative was initiated in 1997 and invested $43 million over 10 years in various entrepreneurship development projects. The report notes that these investments have energized a new set of innovative entrepreneurial leadership in the Region. In addition, over 12,000 jobs have been created or retained and over 1,700 new businesses were created as a result of these activities. $73 million in private capital was also leveraged to support entrepreneurial development in the Region.

File Formats:

Due to the length of this report, ARC is offering the full report, as well as each section, for download in PDF format. A report summary can be read by clicking on the link below. To request a hard copy of this report, please email webmaster@arc.gov.

Summary

Report Summary (HTML format)

Download the Report (PDF files):

• Full Report (3.12 MB)
  
  
• Executive Summary, Chapter 1 (Introduction) and Chapter 2 (Review of the Entrepreneurship Development Field) (268 KB)
  
  
• Chapters 3 (Conceptual Framework and Review of the Literature) and 4 (Approach to the Evaluation) (54 KB)
  
  
• Chapters 5 (The Wider Regional Economy - Entrepreneurship Trends in Appalachia) and 6 (ARC Investment Portfolio - Project Implementation and Metrics) (1.9 MB)
  
  
• Chapters 7 (Sample Project Outcomes and Broader Policy Impacts) and 8 (Lessons Learned from the ARC Entrepreneurship Initiative Experience) (331 KB)
  
  
• Chapter 9 (Conclusion and Recommendations) and Bibliography (271 KB)
  
  
• Appendices (320 KB)