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Economic Development Reference Guide
Business Recruitment and Attraction
Business attraction and recruitment was once considered the main approach
to economic development. Because of the high costs of economic development
marketing, attraction is often the most expensive approach to economic
development. The attraction of new businesses into an economy may quickly
increase the tax base, jobs and the diversity of the local economy. Business
attraction is the most publicized and visible economic development tool because
it creates many jobs at one time and because of the use of incentives and
marketing.
Targets of attraction efforts include advanced manufacturers, high technology
firms, retail and service sector employers, corporate headquarters, sports teams
and entertainment venues.
Business attraction programs use marketing to promote an area’s, favorable business climate, and other location factors
important to specific businesses.
Trends in Business Recruitment and Attraction
- Site selection is the process by which
businesses seeking to invest a large amount of resources seek out a new location
for their facilities
- A 1999 survey of corporate executives with site selection responsibilities
cites that the Internet’s importance as an tool increased two-fold from 1996.
- Financial incentives almost always influence the site selection process for
medium and large sized businesses.
- Communities seeking to target their spending on attraction use cluster
analysis to focus their marketing and recruitment efforts to specific kinds of
businesses.
- Workforce development incentives have
become an important business attraction tool.
- Quality of life attracts businesses and
workers because a business wants most of its workers to move with it.
Web-based Resources for Business Retention and Attraction
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