- Economic development once focused on attracting large employers, but there’s a growing recognition that entrepreneurship is just as valid a strategy.
- A surge in new business creation is reshaping local policymaking, with record highs for “high-propensity” business formation and a broader demographic mix of founders.
- Meanwhile, new tools are shifting entrepreneurship, with microbusinesses showing an early jump in AI adoption — though it remains a question whether that trend will continue.
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Tinkerers might often be the first to deploy a new technology. But commercial adoption is almost always led by big, established firms.
A century-old British caterer deployed the first business computers, to calculate the ingredients in breads and cakes. Early mobile phones were used by corporate executives. Instead of 3D printers landing in every home office, they are more widely used by manufacturing giants.
New technologies are typically expensive, and disruptive. Even if big firms overlook their importance, …