This month, the Center for Economic Development and Business Research at 麻豆传媒 released results of the Survey of Advanced Materials and Composites Firms that assessed the regional business environment, innovation networks and regional norms and attitudes.
The purpose of the online survey was to provide a deeper understanding of the regional economy, indicate gaps that required further investment and provide a baseline by which to judge future progress toward regional prosperity in the composites and advanced materials industry.
Nearly 80 percent of the firms responded positively to how they would rate the region overall as a place for their business to succeed, and nearly half of the respondents believe that the quality of the region will improve over the next five years.
Click on the link to see a table with the results:
The survey identifies the business environment strengths as four-year colleges and universities, cluster synergies, cost of real estate and quality of communication infrastructures. Business environment challenges include governmental regulations, work force and financial capital.
The survey identifies the region鈥檚 capacity to innovate strengths in cluster synergies and all levels of post-secondary education. Innovation challenges are entrepreneurial assets 鈥� financial (banks, angel investors, venture capital) and business incubators.
Nearly all of the survey factors for regional norms and attitudes received a positive survey response. Respondent firms forecast composites and advanced materials employment growth to increase at an average rate of 3.7 percent annually between 2007 and 2010. This equates to an additional work force of 1,600 annually, with additional demand for replacement employment.
Inquiries for more detailed data or additional analyses should be made through the center鈥檚 e-mail (cedbr@wichita.edu). A complete copy of the survey results is available at .