Progress 02/01/09 to 09/30/14
Outputs
Target Audience:
Nothing Reported
Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Our empirical evidence supports a change in knowledge about the important impact of the community-level institutional environment on community members, leaders and retailers. The economic and financial actions of the community have a powerful influence on perceptions of community leaders and members about the performance of community retailers, the ability of the community to attract new businesses, and the community’s tendency to respond positively to change. In addition, the extent to which the community shares a common vision and provides social support has an impact on the openness of the community to change. Our evidence also demonstrates that retailer beliefs about the local expectations of community members do influence how they perceive their stores. The more open that retailer’s believe local residents are to change, the more legitimate they feel their business to be and the better they feel about their prospects for survival. Lastly, our evidence does not show a strong relationship between community resilience and elements of the community environment. However, this may be due to the small number of communities studied (32). Research results have been used to develop the Rural Entrepreneurship Teaching Unit (RETU), a website containing teaching materials aimed at building community resiliency through experiential learning projects engaging college students with rural community constituents. College students at two universities experienced a change in condition by participating in the RETU and being exposed to rural career opportunities. Research results also inspired a grant from NCRCRD to investigate social media use among small, locally-owned businesses to learn how social media is influencing the institutional environment and resiliency in rural communities.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Frazier, B., Niehm, L., and Stoel, L. (March 2014). Rural social media champions: Drivers of social media use. Oral presentation at American Collegiate Retailing Association (ACRA) 2014 Annual Conference, Dallas, TX.
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Progress 01/01/13 to 09/30/13
Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience for our work this year comprises community development professionals in rural communities. Our efforts to deliver an educational curriculum which includes an experiential learning opportunity are featured in the Rural Entrepreneurship Teaching Unit (RETU), where materials/products were launched online based on our complete set of community resilience education modules. The site offers three learning modules designed to introduce university learners to rural entrepreneurship opportunities. The modules provide an overview of trends and challenges facing rural communities and entrepreneurs, and include a service learning project which pairs learning teams with rural community entrepreneurs and business leaders to apply business and community resiliency concepts to local business sector issues. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
A change in knowledge is shown with ongoing analysis of project data. Analyses this year revealed that institutional norms supporting change and reflecting positive attitudes regarding residents’ and business owners’ actions in the task environments are positively related to community optimism about new firm survival. Evidence also supports differential effects of population size on norms related to openness to change and retailer performative actions. Findings suggest that the rural community institutional environment may have an influence on efforts to attract and retain new businesses in rural communities. Dissemination of this information has the potential to impact community development efforts by demonstrating 1) the critical impact of both community resident and community business attitudes on new firm survival, and 2) the effect of population size on community norms relating to openness to change and expectations about retailer operations.
Publications
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Progress 01/01/12 to 12/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Activities include analyzing data, writing manuscripts for 3 conference presentations, writing manuscripts for 3 journal submissions, writing 1 grant application based on data from this project, teaching and refining a rural entrepreneurship teaching/learning module in Michigan and Iowa, and developing/refining a calculator tool and community development website. No events or services have occurred to date. Products from this project include the database of community resilience scores, database of survey responses, one funded grant application for NCRDRC Small Grants Program (Niehm, L., Stoel, L., & Frazier, B. (Jan 2012). Rural social media champions: Development of models of diffusion and best business practices. North Central Region Center for Rural Development 2012 Small Grants Program, $18,427, 1 year), the Rural Entrepreneurship Teaching Unit (RETU) website, an online Community Resiliency Calculator tool, and an eXtension module in development for the Entrepreneurs and Their Communities Community of Practice: Building Entrepreneurial Communities, Title: Community Resilience Capacity Assessment: Strengthening Rural Communities & Local Businesses. The module comprises 3 sections: 1) Introduction to community resilience capacity & entrepreneurs, 2) Community analysis, and 3) Interpreting results of analysis. Section 1 is complete. Sections 2 and 3 are integrally related and are in process; the foundation content is ready; results from current papers need to be incorporated into the content. The calculator tool is a component of Section 2; it uses Census data and monitoring of the US Census data is ongoing to facilitate the presentation of clear instructions for the tool. Dissemination this year includes oral presentation of one manuscript at an international conference, one published paper, and one manuscript in review. In addition, the teaching module (Frazier, B., Niehm, L.S., & Stoel, L. (2012). The Rural Entrepreneurship Teaching Unit (RETU); Available at: http://www.wmich.edu/consumer/rural-entrepreneurship/index.html) is available online and was featured on the Rural Schools and Community Trust website (http://www.ruraledu.org/), the National Service Learning Clearing House (http://www.servicelearning.org/search/apachesolr_search/entrepreneur shipfilters=type%3Aslice%20tid%3A1&retain-filters=1) and the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education's website (http://www.entre-ed.org/). This module was employed in undergraduate entrepreneurship courses in Iowa (90 students) and Michigan (40 students). PARTICIPANTS: The co-principal investigators, Linda Niehm, Barbara Frazier and Leslie Stoel participated about equally in 2012 in the following project activities: data analysis and interpretation of results, preparation of manuscripts, preparation of NCRDRC small grant and development of educational/outreach materials. All are currently engaged in grant writing, manuscript writing and educational activities. For the educational modules all PIs participated in development, editing, and dissemination of the educational modules and on-line materials, with Barbara Frazier and Linda Niehm taking the lead on development and instructional use. Leslie Stoel led the development of the community resiliency calculator tool which is still under development and the eXtension website, also under development. All PIs also participated in the development of a new regional grant proposal building from the current study focused on social media use by small rural businesses. A statistical consultant was added to the project during Year 4 to assist with further refinement of the community resiliency index. Partner organizations on this project include the home academic institutions of the co-PIs where facilities for the research occurred: Iowa State University, Western Michigan University and Ohio State University. No additional collaborators have been added to the project. No Ohio State University students were involved in this project in 2012. TARGET AUDIENCES: One target audience for our work comprises community development professionals and small business owners in rural communities. Our efforts to deliver science-based knowledge to this audience include: 1) an online Community Resiliency Calculator tool, which is complete pending stability of US Census data website and will be used with our eXtension website to be launched in 2013, and 2) the eXtension module in development for the Entrepreneurs and Their Communities Community of Practice: Building Entrepreneurial Communities, Title: Community Resilience Capacity Assessment: Strengthening Rural Communities & Local Businesses. The module comprises 3 sections: 1) Introduction to community resilience capacity & entrepreneurs, 2) Community analysis, and 3) Interpreting results of analysis. Section 1 is complete. Sections 2 and 3 are integrally related and are in process; the foundation content is ready; results from current papers need to be incorporated into the content. The calculator tool is a component of Section 2; it uses Census data and monitoring of the US Census data is ongoing to facilitate the presentation of clear instructions for the tool. A second target audience comprises faculty in colleges and universities who teach merchandising, rural development, small business and entrepreneurship courses and the students of these faculty. Our efforts to deliver an educational curriculum which includes an experiential learning opportunity are featured in the Rural Entrepreneurship Teaching Unit (RETU), where materials/products were launched online based on our complete set of community resilience education modules. The site offers three learning modules designed to introduce university learners to rural entrepreneurship opportunities. The modules provide an overview of trends and challenges facing rural communities and entrepreneurs, and include a service learning project which pairs learning teams with rural community entrepreneurs and business leaders to apply business and community resiliency concepts to local business sector issues. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
A change in knowledge is shown with analysis of project data. Organizational legitimacy is one important concept in our study; it reflects community member perceptions of the degree to which local retailers are perceived to be good community members and who will be more likely to be patronized by local residents as a result of complying with community norms. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that community member perceptions of the legitimacy of local retailers is predicted by community perceptions of local retailer performance, the ability of the community to attract new business, and norms of openness in the community; economic resilience and social resilience were not predictors of legitimacy. Perception of retail performance is the most important factor influencing legitimacy of local retailers. The moderating effects of social resiliency and economic resiliency of the community on the three relationships were tested. Economic resiliency in a community did moderate; it increased perceptions of the community's ability to attract new business. However, the moderating effect of social resiliency did not have a significant effect on the predictive power of the model. These results demonstrate that perceptions of both the local business actions, via organizational performance, and local community actions, through attracting new businesses and being open to change, affect the way that local retailers are perceived by community members. In addition, results shows that the economic vitality of the community can affect perceptions of community-level actions and those perceptions will in turn affect perceptions of the local business community. Dissemination of this information has the potential to impact community development efforts by demonstrating 1) the critical impact of both community efforts and business efforts on resident perceptions, and 2) the effect that economic condition of the community has on resident perceptions of both the community and local businesses. The Rural Entrepreneurship Teaching Unit (RETU) was used in a second round of undergraduate entrepreneurship courses in Iowa and Michigan during Year 4, providing entrepreneurship engagement opportunities for approximately 130 students, and business assistance and knowledge regarding resiliency strategies for 12 businesses, and 2 communities. The RETU is designed to introduce university learners to rural entrepreneurship opportunities. The upcoming eXtension module targets community leaders, development officers, and business owners and introduces these constituents to the concept of community resilience capacity. The module will provide key background information on community resilience, a tool to calculate a community's resiliency, and interpretation information that can be used to improve various dimensions of resilience capacity. The interpretation information is being generated from the results of our research.
Publications
- Niehm, L., Frazier, B., Stoel, L., & Son, J. (2012). Doing the right thing: The role of community norms in rural consumers perceptions of local retailers. Research presentation for 2012 International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) Annual Meeting, Honolulu, HI.
- Niehm, L., Stoel, L., & Frazier, B. (2012-2013). Rural social media champions: Development of models of diffusion and best business practices. North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD) Small Grants Program. $18,427.
- Frazier, B., Niehm, L., & Stoel, L. (2012). Connecting college learners with rural entrepreneurship opportunities: The rural entrepreneurship teaching unit. Journal of Case Studies in Education, available at: www.aabri.com/manuscripts/111035.pdf .
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Progress 01/01/11 to 12/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Activities include analyzing data, writing manuscripts for conference presentations, writing manuscripts for journal submission, and writing three grant applications based on data from this project. No events or services have occurred to date. Products from this project include the database of community resilience scores, database of survey responses, one unfunded grant application for the Disaster Resilience in Rural Communities (DRRC) USDA-NSF program (Frazier, B., Stoel, L., Niehm, L., & Swenson, D.A. (submitted March 1, 2011). Collaborative Research: DRRC: Rural Community Resilience Capacity: Role of the Retail/Service Sector in Disaster Planning and Recovery. National Science Foundation and United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food & Agriculture Joint Disaster Resilience in Rural Communities Program, $399,970 ($75,202 OSU subcontract); 2.5 years (October 2011 - December 2013)), one unfunded grant application for USDA-AFRI Foundation program (Stoel, L., Frazier, B., Niehm, L. & Jackson, V. (submitted March 22, 2011). Rural Community Economic and Social Resilience Capacity: Impact of Shared Vision on Community Performance Outcomes. United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food & Agriculture Integrated Grant, Agriculture Economics and Rural Communities Program, $499,977; 3 years (September 2011 - August 2014), and one unfunded grant application for NCRDRC Small Grants Program (Niehm, L., Stoel, L., Frazier, B., Shelley II, M.C. & Swenson, D.A. (Feb 2011). Building a Rural Community Resilience Capacity Index: Increasing Predictive Validity. North Central Region Center for Rural Development 2011 Small Grants Program, $20,000, 1 year). Dissemination includes oral presentation of two papers at international conferences No outreach activities have occurred yet. PARTICIPANTS: The co-principal investigators, Linda Niehm, Barbara Frazier and Leslie Stoel participated about equally in 2011 in the following project activities: data analysis and interpretation of results, preparation of DRRC federal grant application revision, preparation of USDA-AFRI grant application and preparation of NCRDRC small grant. All are currently engaged in grant writing and manuscript writing. No individuals have been added to the project. Partner organizations on this project include the home academic institutions of the co-PIs where facilities for the research occurred: Iowa State University, Western Michigan University and Ohio State University. No additional collaborators have been added to the project. Training to date involves the graduate students on the project and undergraduate students who enrolled experiential classes from this project. The undergraduate and graduate students learned about the research process. Key elements include identifying a problem that needs to be examined through research, conducting literature review, finding compelling rationale for a project, writing a grant application, conducting qualitative interviews, analyzing secondary data, conducting survey research, analyzing data, writing research reports and manuscripts, and presenting reports to lay and professional audiences. TARGET AUDIENCES: A community resilience calculator tool has been developed and testing is underway for posting on the eXtension Communities and Entrepreneurs community of practice. The target audience comprises community development professionals and small business owners in rural communities. In addition, a website containing teaching materials for courses using consulting projects related to community resilience and small business development has been created and is under final revision. The target audience comprises faculty in colleges and universities who teach merchandising, rural development, small business and entrepreneurship courses. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
A change in knowledge is shown with analysis of project data. Results from Objective 1 suggest that perceptions of community leaders and residents about their community's economic investments in community infrastructure influence perceptions about the performance of retail organizations in the community, the ability of the community to attract new retail businesses and the community-level institutional norms relating to openness to change. Perceptions of the community's social investments in community infrastructure are important because they influence the openness of institutional norms. However, the results also suggest that when decoupling of community economic and social investments is prevalent 1) the community will not be successful in attracting new retail businesses and 2) perceptions of organizational performance will suffer. Further, results show that when residents perceive that organizational actions of community retailers are congruent with institutional norms, they also believe the community is better at attracting new retail businesses. The analysis did not show an effect of institutional norms on attracting new retail businesses. Objective 1 research shows the important effect that community-level economic and social investments can have on resident perceptions of the operation of the community, the local retail sector and community institutional norms. The Objective 2 analysis provides evidence of the influence that retailer perceptions of the institutional norms have on their perceptions of the legitimacy of the retail sector and on survival of retail organizations. The more open the norms are perceived to be, the more legitimate the retail sector and the greater the survival of retailers. In addition, perceptions that the community is able to attract new retail businesses increase perceptions of the legitimacy of retail organizations. Perceptions of organizational legitimacy are also increased when a retailer aligns their organizational performance with institutional norms. De-coupling organizational performance from organizational actions did not increase perceptions of organizational legitimacy; nor did re-coupling of organizational actions with institutional norms influence organizational legitimacy. Perceptions of organizational legitimacy did not increase organizational survival. Objective 2 research documents the interplay of the institutional environment and the task environment in which retailers operate. Retailer perceptions of elements from the institutional environment influence their perceptions of elements of the task environment, such as perceptions of their own performance, their organizational actions and their legitimacy. The analysis for Objective 3 suggests a very limited relationship of community resilience with the institutional environment and no direct relationship with elements in the task environment. In more resilient communities, the locals perceived the community was not able to attract new retail businesses but the institutional norms were more open to change. Resiliency did not, however, influence perceptions of organizational performance, organizational legitimacy or organizational survival.
Publications
- Frazier, B., Niehm, L. & Stoel, L. (April 2011). Community resiliency module: Connecting learners with rural entrepreneurship opportunities. Proceedings of the International Textile & Apparel Association (ITAA) 2011 Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA. Available online: http://www.itaaonline.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=65 .
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Progress 01/01/10 to 12/31/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Activities include analyzing data, writing manuscripts for conference presentations, writing manuscripts for journal submission, and writing three federal grant applications and one regional grant application based on data from this project. No events or services have occurred to date. Products from this project include the database of community resilience scores, database of survey responses, one unfunded grant application for the Disaster Resilience in Rural Communities (DRRC) USDA-NSF program (Frazier, B., Stoel, L., Niehm, L. and Anderson, D. 2010. Disaster resilience for rural communities: Role of retailers. United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture and National Science Foundation Joint Disaster Resilience in Rural Communities Program, $400,000; 3 years), revision of above DRRC grant in process for submission March 5, 2011, one grant application in process for USDA-AFRI Foundation program for submission March 23, 2011, and one grant application in process for NCRDRC Small Grants Program due February 10, 2011. Dissemination includes oral presentation of two papers at an international conference (Frazier, B.J., Stoel, L. & Niehm, L. (October 2010). The influence of the institutional environment on community perceptions of rural retailer performance. Oral presentation at International Textile & Apparel Association (ITAA) 2010 Annual Conference, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Jackson, V. & Stoel, L. (October 2010). A multi-state qualitative assessment of decoupling, recoupling and organizational survival of rural retailers. Oral presentation at International Textile & Apparel Association (ITAA) 2010 Annual Conference, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.). One additional paper has been accepted for presentation at a national conference in March 2011 (Jackson, V., Stoel, L., Niehm, L. & Frazier, B. (submitted November 2010). Effects of decoupling, recoupling and community norms of openness on organizational legitimacy of small rural retailers. For oral presentation at the American Collegiate Retailing Association 2011 Annual Conference, Boston, MA). No outreach activities have occurred yet. PARTICIPANTS: The co-principal investigators, Linda Niehm, Barbara Frazier and Leslie Stoel participated about equally in 2010 in the following project activities: data analysis and interpretation of results, preparation of DRRC federal grant application revision, preparation of USDA-AFRI grant application and preparation of NCRDRC small grant. All are currently engaged in grant writing and manuscript writing. Graduate student assistants associated with the project include Rosita (Iowa State University), SoWon Jeong (Ohio State University) and Nicole (Western Michigan University) and these students assisted in manuscript preparation and finding information needed for the new grant applications. No individuals have been added to the project. Partner organizations on this project include the home academic institutions of the co-PIs where facilities for the research occurred: Iowa State University, Western Michigan University and Ohio State University. No additional collaborators have been added to the project. Training to date involves the graduate students on the project. The students are learning about the research process and the grant writing process. Key elements include identifying a problem that needs to be examined through research, conducting literature review, finding compelling rationale for a project, writing a grant application, conducting survey research, analyzing data, and writing research manuscripts. TARGET AUDIENCES: Development of a community resilience assessment tool is underway for posting on the eXtension Communities and Entrepreneurs community of practice. The target audience comprises community development professionals and small business owners in rural communities. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
A change in knowledge is shown with analysis of project data. Results from Objective 1 suggest that perceptions of community leaders and residents about their community's economic investments in community infrastructure influence perceptions about the performance of retail organizations in the community, the ability of the community to attract new retail businesses and the community-level institutional norms relating to openness to change. Perceptions of the community's social investments in community infrastructure are important because they influence the openness of institutional norms. However, the results also suggest that when decoupling of community economic and social investments is prevalent 1) the community will not be successful in attracting new retail businesses and 2) perceptions of organizational performance will suffer. Further, results show that when residents perceive that organizational actions of community retailers are congruent with institutional norms, they also believe the community is better at attracting new retail businesses. The analysis did not show an effect of institutional norms on attracting new retail businesses. Objective 1 research shows the important effect that community-level economic and social investments can have on resident perceptions of the operation of the community, the local retail sector and community institutional norms. The Objective 2 analysis provides evidence of the influence that retailer perceptions of the institutional norms have on their perceptions of the legitimacy of the retail sector and on survival of retail organizations. The more open the norms are perceived to be, the more legitimate the retail sector and the greater the survival of retailers. In addition, perceptions that the community is able to attract new retail businesses increase perceptions of the legitimacy of retail organizations. Perceptions of organizational legitimacy are also increased when a retailer aligns their organizational performance with institutional norms. De-coupling organizational performance from organizational actions did not increase perceptions of organizational legitimacy; nor did re-coupling of organizational actions with institutional norms influence organizational legitimacy. Perceptions of organizational legitimacy did not increase organizational survival. Objective 2 research documents the interplay of the institutional environment and the task environment in which retailers operate. Retailer perceptions of elements from the institutional environment influence their perceptions of elements of the task environment, such as perceptions of their own performance, their organizational actions and their legitimacy. The analysis for Objective 3 suggests a very limited relationship of community resilience with the institutional environment and no direct relationship with elements in the task environment. In more resilient communities, the locals perceived the community was not able to attract new retail businesses but the institutional norms were more open to change. Resiliency did not, however, influence perceptions of organizational performance, organizational legitimacy or organizational survival.
Publications
- Frazier, B.J., Stoel, L. & Niehm, L. (October 2010). The influence of the institutional environment on community perceptions of rural retailer performance. Abstract in Proceedings of the International Textile & Apparel Association (ITAA) 2010 Annual Conference, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Available at: http://www.itaaonline.org/www/default/index.cfm/proceedings-2010/
- Jackson, V. & Stoel, L. (October 2010). A multi-state qualitative assessment of decoupling, recoupling and organizational survival of rural retailers. Abstract in Proceedings of the International Textile & Apparel Association (ITAA) 2010 Annual Conference, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Available at: http://www.itaaonline.org/www/default/index.cfm/proceedings-2010/
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Progress 01/01/09 to 12/31/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Activities include identifying more and less resilient communities for the sample, preparing sample lists of community leaders and retailers in the identified communities, collecting survey data via telephone to provide the data needed to achieve project objectives, analyzing data which is currently in progress, and writing a federal grant application based on preliminary data analysis from this project. No events or services have occurred to date. Products from this project include the database of community resilience scores, database of survey responses and a grant application for the Disaster Resilience in Rural Communities USDA-NSF program (Frazier, B., Stoel, L., Niehm, L. and Anderson, D. 2010. Disaster resilience for rural communities: Role of retailers. United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture and National Science Foundation Joint Disaster Resilience in Rural Communities Program, $400,000; 3 years). Dissemination includes oral presentation of a conceptual paper at a conference, presenting our project's conceptual model (Frazier, B., Niehm, L., Stoel, L., Miller, N., and Sattler Weber, S. 2009. An institutional perspective of retailer marketing actions in rural communities. International Textile and Apparel Association 2009 Annual Conference. Seattle, WA). Additional outreach activities of the project are planned for year 3 of the project and have not occurred yet. PARTICIPANTS: The co-principal investigators, Linda Niehm, Barbara Frazier and Leslie Stoel participated about equally in the following activities for the project: developed survey instrument, identified participant communities for the sample frame, created sample lists for community leaders and community retailers in the identified communities, revised survey instrument after pre-test, fielded questions from the Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology (CSSM) during survey administration, interpreted preliminary data from the survey to prepare another federal grant application and are currently engaged in data analysis. Diane Anderson, another co-investigator managed the data collection process of the CSSM and produced the code manual for the dataset. Graduate student assistants associated with the project include Rosita (Iowa State University), SoWon Jeong (Ohio State University) and Nicole (Western Michigan University) and these students assisted collected resiliency statistics used in identifying communities, gathered names and contact information of individuals to include on the sample lists of community leaders and retailers in their own states, checked data from collaborator states, participated in literature search for the survey measurement items, and helped with the preliminary data analysis as well as finding information needed for the new grant application. No individuals have been added to the project. Partner organizations on this project include the home academic institutions of the co-PIs where facilities for the research occurred: Iowa State University, Western Michigan University and Ohio State University. Home academic institutions of the collaborators include the University of Nebraska, University of Kentucky, Virginia Tech University, Bowling Green University, University of Georgia and Oregon State University respectively (see below). The Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology (CSSM) at Iowa State University conducted the telephone survey for the project. Collaborators on the project, Nancy Miller, Vanessa Jackson, Jihyun Kim, Hyun Hwa Lee, Laura Jolly and Minjeong Kim identified communities in their states for the sample frame and created sample lists for community leaders and community retailers in the identified communities. No additional collaborators have been added to the project. Training to date involves the graduate students on the project. The students are learning about the research process and the grant writing process. Key elements include identifying a problem that needs to be examined through research, conducting literature review, finding compelling rationale for a project, writing a grant application, conducting survey research and analyzing data. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
A change in knowledge is shown with preliminary analysis of the project data. This preliminary examination investigates potential perceptual differences in the institutional environment between community members/leaders and retailers in more and less resilient communities. Preliminary results reveal several interesting comparisons. We compared community member/leader and retailer perceptions about the community institutional and task environment, and found notable differences among groups in less resilient communities. In comparison to community retailers, ANOVA results showed that members/leaders in less resilient communities believe community performance actions are higher (F=18.53, df=589, p=.000), community institutional actions are higher (F=13.97, df=589, p=.000), the community is more open to change (F=7.25, df=589, p=.007), and members/leaders believe their community is more likely to be able to attract new businesses to the community (F=4.45, df=589, p=.035). With the exception of community ability to attract new businesses, there were no significant differences among community members/leaders and retailers on these beliefs in more resilient rural communities. This suggests a possible fraying of community social capital in less resilient communities, which may hinder collaborative actions that build resilient capacity. Second, when comparing beliefs of retailers in more resilient communities to retailers in less resilient communities, ANOVA results show that those in more resilient communities believe that community performance actions are higher (F=7.32, df=182, p=.007) and community institutional actions are higher (F=4.02, df=182, p=.047). This analysis suggests that, relative to retailers in more resilient communities, the retail sector in less resilient communities perceives the local environment in a less favorable light, believing that the community does less for local constituents. Preliminary results indicate that community resiliency is an important factor in assessing the overall community environment and its ability to cope with and rebound from shocks. Data analysis testing hypotheses associated with project is currently in progress, so there are no additional outcomes or impacts to report at this time.
Publications
- Niehm, L., Miller, N., Frazier, B., Stoel, L. and Sattler Weber, S. 2009. Attracting retail entrepreneurs to rural communities: The role of the institutional environment. Proceedings of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) 2009 Annual Conference. Anaheim California.
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