Innovative businesses may be less likely to be approved for credit loans

October 1, 2025

Innovation helps spur rural economies, but a new study by NERCRD researchers and their collaborators found that while firms incorporating innovation into their business model had higher credit application rates, they were less successful in receiving loans, especially in rural areas.

Publications

Rural innovative firms and credit: Findings from the annual business survey

September 17, 2025

Credit access remains a critical constraint for rural firms. This study examines how the innovation orientation of businesses affects credit access in urban and rural areas using the 2021 Annual Business Survey.

Article on New Hampshire’s “quiet” innovation highlights NERCRD research

August 11, 2025

In this opinion piece written for the New Hampshire Business Review, Dr. Charlie French (University of New Hampshire Extension) cites NERCRD research on “latent” or hidden innovation, and provides several examples of “quiet innovation” from rural New Hampshire communities that are leading to gains in employment, income, and quality of life. Dr. French leads UNH Extension’s Community and Economic Development team.

Screenshot of article on The Conversation website.

NERCRD research featured in The Conversation article on US trade deficit

July 10, 2025

In this piece written for The Conversation, Rochester Institute of Technology’s Amitrajeet A. Batabyal draws on a recent paper led by NERCRD’s Luyi Han to make the case for boosting innovation in rural manufacturing to help address the U.S. trade deficit.

Publications

Design: A critical input to rural innovative entrepreneurship

June 23, 2025

Abstract: Described as a mediation between people and technology, design is critical to innovative entrepreneurship but has been ignored in innovation research. The rigorous study of design has suffered from an inability to differentiate firms that approach design as ad hoc from those approaching design as a structured, creative process. This research uses newly available […]

Decorative image: aerial view of people working on project with diagrams, sticky-notes, and a laptop

Strategic design approach boosts rural innovation, researchers find

June 18, 2025

Businesses that take a strategic approach to design are up to eight times more likely to develop innovative products than those that don’t, according to a study by NERCRD researchers.

Rural manufacturing exports linked to innovation

April 2, 2025

While rural areas are more dependent on manufacturing than their urban peers, they are less likely to participate in global markets. NERCRD researchers have identified several factors that explain why, with differences in innovation capacity playing the most significant role.

Publications

Explaining the Urban-Rural Export Gap: Evidence from U.S. Firms

March 30, 2025

Abstract: The U.S. urban-rural export gap is important given the share of manufactured goods in exports, the rural concentration of manufacturing activity, and recent federal investments in place-based policy. These investments raise questions about the size of the export gap and whether it is explained by differences in endowments or inherent rural disadvantages. Confidential trade […]

Publications

Did the U.S. Fracking Boom Shale-Shock Regional Patenting?

September 17, 2024

The shale boom of the early 21st century turned the U.S. into an energy powerhouse and significantly disrupted local economies with shale resources. This study examines the impacts of the U.S. shale boom on regional patenting at a commuting zone level. The shale boom may negatively affect patents if it crowds out labor and capital […]

Leveraging Federal Data Collections for Analysis of the Causes and Consequences of Place-Based Innovation with Small Area Innovation Rate Estimation

August 13, 2024

The focus of this two-year, $300,000 grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is to develop a new method for accurately measuring innovation activity in small geographic regions. The research team endeavors to shed light on the factors that promote or hinder innovation among firms in different U.S. locations, as well as facilitate more targeted and effective local interventions to foster economic growth and social well-being.

Tag: rural innovation