Community Business Matching Model Aids Local Decisionmakers and Developers

With the massive loss of employment during “The Great Recession”, many states, regions, counties, and communities have initiated and engaged in economic development activities. These efforts often involve empirical cluster targeting or local entrepreneurship training programs, which are usually initiated and completed with little or no input as to economic development preferences of the local populace or consideration of availability and/or quality of local economic development assets. With little or no participation from the local populace, cluster studies often end up on bookshelves because the community does not buy into the cluster process. In order to develop more effective and efficient economic development strategies, a better decision support system is needed to allow the incorporation of citizen economic development preferences, the quantity and quality of local economic development assets, and needs of industries/businesses in creating a state, regional, county, or local economic development strategy. The Community Business Matching (CBM) model is such a decision support system.