May 31 -- The Small Business Administration (SBA) invites comments to OMB by July 3, 2024 on its proposal to conduct a survey of cluster administrators, small businesses, and partner organizations including Entrepreneurial Support Organizations (ESO) who participated in the SBA's Regional Innovation Cluster (RIC) Initiative. [Comments due 30 days after submission to OMB on June 4.]
Through the RIC Initiative, the SBA is investing in regional clusters—geographic concentrations of interconnected companies, specialized suppliers, academic institutions, service providers, and associated organizations with a specific industry focus—throughout the United States that span a variety of industries. The three primary goals of the initiative are to (1) increase opportunities for small business participation within clusters, (2) promote innovation in the industries on which the clusters are focused, and (3) enhance economic development and growth in cluster regions. To achieve these goals, the clusters provide a host of services to the target population of small and emerging businesses within their regional and industry focuses. Services include direct business advising and support and sponsoring events, such as networking opportunities with investors, partner organizations, ESOs, and other stakeholders in the regions. This information collection is necessary for the SBA to understand the progress of the RIC Initiative towards achieving its goals.
The evaluation consists of two key components: an implementation evaluation and an outcome evaluation. The implementation evaluation focuses on how the Initiative is implemented across the fourteen clusters and on the services that each cluster provides to its small businesses. The outcome evaluation focuses on short and intermediate-term outcomes linked directly to the cluster services, as well as on long-term business outcomes that can be reasonably expected to result from the short- and intermediate-term outcomes. The short-term outcomes include the satisfaction and the perceived effectiveness of the program for business management and growth. The intermediate-term outcomes include development of new products, commercialization of new technologies, marketing and export services, improved access to capital, and industry integration. Long-term outcomes include increased revenue and employment. Over the previous years, evaluation results have helped to track the program performance outcomes and provide suggestions for program improvements to better facilitate innovation and small business growth. Furthermore, the evaluation survey data helped the SBA to better focus cluster activities on local contexts, particularly for rural and agricultural small businesses. This data will not be used to evaluate the effectiveness of an individual cluster.
The data collection effort involves three types of RIC Initiative stakeholders: small businesses, partner organizations, and cluster administrators. Small businesses participating in the cluster will be sent an online survey to provide data about their cluster participation experiences, satisfaction with the program and its components, the performance of their firms with respect to a variety of outcomes, and the role of cluster participation in the achievement of these outcomes. Similarly, partner organizations will be asked to complete an online survey to provide data about their experiences with the RIC Initiative. The questions include reasons for the RIC participation, collaboration with and support for small businesses, and the role of cluster participation on key organizational outcomes associated with the RIC Initiative participation. Small businesses and partner organizations will also be interviewed once a year to obtain information on barriers, facilitators, and other local influences on cluster and ecosystem engagement, best practices to facilitate innovation, and suggestions for potential cluster improvements (among other topics). The cluster administrators will be asked to provide participant rosters, which provide the framework for the surveys that the small businesses and partner organizations are sent. The administrator survey requests information about the services they provided to these two groups of stakeholders, and their operations in general. Cluster administrators will also be interviewed once a year to obtain information about how their operations have evolved, the adjustments they made, best practices, issues encountered, and the lessons learned.
In 2023, the SBA conducted the Evaluation of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Regional Innovation Cluster Initiative. Prepared by contractors, the evaluation consisted of two key components: an implementation evaluation and an outcome evaluation. The implementation evaluation focused on how the Initiative was implemented across the fourteen clusters and on the services that each cluster provided to its small businesses. The outcome evaluation measured the extent to which the desired program outcomes have been achieved. The results suggested that the RIC Initiative has supported small business participants’ growth in both revenue and employment. Over the evaluation years, study data and revised surveys have helped to track the program performance outcome and provide suggestions for RIC Initiative improvements. Furthermore, data from the survey also helped the SBA to better focus on rural and agricultural small businesses. That is, Optimal can identify specific outcomes for rural and agricultural small businesses via post-hoc analyses using businesses’ industry and zip code, which were identified on the small business survey.
The SBA plans to continue collecting program performance and business participant outcome data from the program administrators and participants annually. Changes in key measures, such as revenue and employment growth will be compared against similar firms in the same regions. In addition, the participants’ satisfaction with the program and the perceived program’s effects on their business outcomes (and the goals of the Initiative) will be tracked from year to year. The SBA hired an independent contractor to plan and conduct this evaluation of the RIC Initiative.
The evaluation will examine the program’s short-term, intermediate, and long-term outcomes. The short-term and intermediate outcomes are directly linked to cluster services, activities, and events, and are expected to be observed during or soon after participation in the RIC Initiative. The short-term outcomes include the satisfaction and the perceived effectiveness of the program on business management and growth. The intermediate outcomes include the development of new products and the commercialization of new technologies, marketing and exports, access to capital, and industry and business network integration. Long-term outcomes, such as increased revenue and employment are expected to be achieved over time as resulting from achieving the short- and intermediate-term outcomes.
The data collection effort discussed in this request involves the collection of a variety of data from three types of RIC Initiative stakeholders. Small businesses participating in the cluster represent the first group of Initiative stakeholders. They will be sent an online survey to provide data about their participation and satisfaction, the performance of their firm regarding a variety of performance indicators that are expected to manifest themselves due to cluster participation, and the role of cluster participation in the achievement of these key performance indicators. In addition, twelve small businesses will be recruited to participate in a 35-minute semi-structured interview about their experiences with the cluster, how the cluster helped them achieve their business goals, unmet needs, and suggestions for improving cluster services. The contractor may request to record the conversation for internal use at a later date, provided that the interviewee consents to being recorded. The recording will not be distributed and will only be used to assist qualitative data coding.
Partner organizations participating in the Initiative is a broad group that includes ESOs, universities, national laboratories, public sector agencies, nonprofit organizations, and business associations and large businesses. They will be asked to answer an online survey to provide data about the reasons for their participation, their collaboration or involvement with small businesses, and the role of cluster participation on key indicators associated with their operations. In addition, twelve will be recruited to participate in a semi-structured 35-minute interview about their experiences with the cluster, how the cluster helped them achieve their organizational goals, unmet needs, best practices, and issues supporting small businesses, and suggestions for improving cluster services. Note, ESOs (which are a subgroup of partner organizations) will be asked similar information via the partner organization interview. The contractor may request to record the conversation for internal use at a later date, provided that the interviewee consents to being recorded. The recording will not be distributed and will only be used to assist qualitative data coding.
Cluster administrators involved in the RIC Initiative will be asked to complete a survey that captures information about the services they provided to these RIC participants and about their operations in general. In addition, cluster administrators will be interviewed once a year to clarify and follow up on the content of their progress reports, and to obtain information about how their operations have evolved, the adjustments they made, best practices, issues encountered, and the lessons learned during the year. The contractor may request to record the conversation for internal use at a later date. Please note, the recording will not be distributed, and the contractor will only record the conversation provided that the interviewee consents.
The proposed evaluation will be used to increase the SBA’s understanding of outcomes of small businesses across its RIC Initiative portfolio, to identify potential difficulties and mitigations in implementing the RIC Initiative, and to contribute to the body of knowledge surrounding how regional clusters help small businesses.
SBA RIC Program:
https://www.sba.gov/local-assistance/regional-innovation-clusters
SBA submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202406-3245-001 Click IC List for information collection instrument, View Supporting Statement for technical documentation. Submit comments through this webpage.
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2024-11967
For AEA members wishing to submit comments, "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" is available at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806