Grand Challenges: Seizing Opportunities: Social Capital, Businesses, and Communities

Why do small businesses exploit business opportunities better in some locations than others? Are outcomes in a locality, such as growth and profitability, determined by the availability of investment opportunities and infrastructure, or are they also modified by the deeper characteristics of localities and the people who live there? A vibrant local business environment can provide opportunities for independent businesses in disadvantaged communities, thus reducing racial and social disparities. Addressing these issues is one of our nation’s grand challenges: how to foster a resilient and diverse economy. This project will help deepen the understanding of small businesses, which represent 44% of U.S. economic activity and create two-thirds of net new U.S. jobs. The project has two components. The analysis component, led by Smith School researchers, examines the causal effects of social capital on local economic and social outcomes using large-scale granular restricted-access databases from the U.S. Census Bureau. The communications component, led by Journalism researchers, studies how techniques of data journalism, combined with traditional narrative journalism, can effectively convey the story of cutting-edge scientific research in ways that are intelligible to the broader community and thereby elevate the public debate on the topic. Together, these two components will further our understanding of the substantive disparities between communities and place that knowledge in context.