Research on BR&E Visitation Programs
Making Connections through BR&E
This case study looked at a number of social capital impacts of the BR&E program(McLaughlin, 1987; McLaughlin, 1990). The author used a qualitative research approach to look at the reasons local leaders participated and the organizational and sociological changes in the local group. The author spent fourteen days in the community and interviewed thirty participants in an Ohio BR&E program, observed six meetings of BR&E program participants, and observed three business visits by program participants. The major finding was that the BR&E Task Force "red flag" review process used in this project changed the norms of accountability among local development leaders. The process helped Task Force members to: identify with each other; develop more realistic expectations regarding the capabilities of other organizations; avoid embarrassing one another about past mistakes while at the same time implying that avoidable future mistakes in working with local firms would prove embarrassing. (McLaughlin, 1990. pp. 176-177).
Measuring the Success of BR&E Visitation Programs
The second study of the BR&E visitation program included communities in six states (Ohio, Nebraska, Indiana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin). This study surveyed one person (the volunteer coordinator) in 81 local BR&E Visitation programs and asked their perceptions of the program benefits and characteristics of each program . The results of this research were reported in three journal articles (Loveridge, Smith, and Morse, 1991; Smith, Morse, and Lobao, 1992; Loveridge and Smith, 1992).
What Does It Take to Run a BR&E Visitation Program?: The first article from this project (Loveridge, Smith, and Morse, 1991) provided a picture of the resources required to do a local BR&E Visitation Program. The article examined the time requirements for the coordinator (averaged 89 hours per program), the composition of the volunteers and task force, the methods used to reach a high percentage of firms, the methods used to train volunteers, the types of information requested, the type of local problems found, and the methods used to respond to problems.
Coordinator Perceptions of Success in BR&E Visitation Programs: The second article from this project reported on various measures of success in the BR&E Visitation Program (Smith, Morse, and Labao, 1992). Eight variables were used to measure the immediate benefits of the BR&E Visitation Programs. The first five reflect the coordinator's perceptions of the degree to which the local BR&E Visitation Program objectives were achieved. On a ten point scale, with a score of 10 being most beneficial, the objectives rated as follows:
- demonstration to local firms that the community had a pro-business attitude (mean score of 9.0),
- providing data for economic development planning (7.8),
- assisted firms in solving local problems (7.1), gave early warning of plant closures (5.4), and
- helped firms use state development programs (4.8).
In addition, three additional variables were used to reflect the overall ratings by coordinators. These were as follows:
- overall rating of how worthwhile the program was, considering both costs and benefits (mean of 7.9 from a 10 point scale),
- willingness to recommend the program to their peers in other communities (89% were willing, with 9% maybe, and 1% no), and
- coordinator's perception of firm's willingness to recommend the program to other firms (78% ).
These findings indicated that users found the program very useful. However, they rated the program relatively low on the objective of helping firms use state development programs. This resulted in a major change in the organization of the program, which now includes a separate "Red Flag" Coordinator to organize this portion of the program (Morse, 1996, section 6).
Factors Influencing Success in BR&E Visitation Programs: The third article used the same data base as the one immediately preceding this (Loveridge and Smith, 1992). However, in this case, the research used factor analysis to combine the eight separate quantitative measures outlined above into a single measure of "success" and then examined factors that contributed to better programs. Factors which were found to lead to greater success were:
- focusing the program on manufacturing firms;
- developing written recommendations of priority projects;
- greater investments of time by the coordinators;
- using volunteers to set the final priorities, visit firms, and help in developing the final report.
Implementation of Long-Term BR&E Projects
The third major study of BR&E visitation programs included the states of Ohio, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nebraska (Morse, and Ha, 1995; Allanach, 1995). This project also surveyed local coordinators but the focus shifted to the implementation of the projects outlined in the written reports. Each coordinator was asked to specify the degree of implementation for specific projects. Strategic planning hypotheses were tested using regression analysis.
Factors Influencing Degree of Implementation: In this staff paper, Morse and Ha test the hypotheses that strategic planning methods influence the degree of implementation. A key finding is that the strategic plans adopted by local programs have been substantially or completely implemented about 30% of the time and local leaders are actively pursuing the implementation on another 35% of the projects. The authors found that "two-thirds of the programs conform well to the principles of strategic planning up to the point that implementation starts, then only a small portion of the programs conform." (Morse and Ha, 1995, p. 8). They found that the benefits of BR&E plan implementation were positively correlated with the following:
- the number of paid development professionals working on BR&E,
- the written report specifies who has responsibility for implementing specific plans,
- the years since the plan was developed,
- the number of different plans included,
- the local BR&E program followed strategic planning methods,
- the funding for BR&E,
- the hours spent by the coordinator,
- and the time spent by the Task Force on implementation meetings.
Market for BR&E Visitation Programs
Allanach's M.S. thesis (1995) explored the factors which might predict whether or not a community would participate in a BR&E Visitation Program. He used logit analysis to predict whether or not a community would be in the program and found that communities were more likely to participate if:
- they have higher unemployment,
- had larger per capita incomes,
- relied more on manufacturing jobs,
- and had a more educated population.
Allanach also attempted to compare communities with BR&E Visitation Programs with those that didn't have these programs. At the community levels, he found no significant differences between those with and without the program for changes in per capita income or unemployment rates (p. 91). Service employment grew slightly more rapidly in those with the program than those without. (p.91). While Allanach concluded that these results were largely "spurious and inconclusive" (p. 92), this lack of results might simply be due to the level of aggregation.
