Scott Chazdon

Ready for engagement: using key informant interviews to measure community social capacity

This article presents findings from 45 structured key informant interviews conducted in nine rural Minnesota communities to examine the readiness of rural communities to sustain long-term development initiatives requiring large commitments of time, staff, and volunteer resources. A model of community readiness is proposed based on the common themes that emerged from the interview data as well as the literature. The proposed model combines four components that contribute to a thorough assessment of readiness: bonding networks, bridging networks, linking networks and leadership energy. The study provides a new approach to help community development organizations make more strategic decisions about when and how to engage communities in long-term development activity.

Bridging Brown County: Captivating Social Capital as a Means to Community Change

As our communities strive to support community change efforts for survival and vitality, the importance of social capital has become evident in leadership development. Many researchers and practitioners realize that tapping into the inherent power of relationships and social networks is crucial. This paper provides an overview of the design and evaluation of Bridging Brown County, a countywide community leadership development program that was explicitly designed to build social capital as well as human capital. By integrating social and human capital constructs into the program design, impacts have been measured in domains of other community capitals. The results of the impact study provide insight into developing and measuring the success of community leadership programs.

The silver tsunami and rural small business retention: What can communities do?

Abstract Since many rural communities have a disproportionately older population, the “silver tsunami” of retiring baby boomers has fueled interest in small business succession as a business retention strategy. Most business succession research has focused solely on the firm level without addressing community-level aspects. This article emphasizes the importance of community responses by blending findings from a rural small business survey with key informant interviews. Study findings suggest that successful business succession creates an opportunity for business expansion. Of the 118 new owners surveyed, 41% increased employment, 68% increased sales volume, and 68% increased their customer base. Communities reported facilitating business succession by (1) emphasizing the importance of succession planning, (2) reducing financial, time, and confidentiality barriers, and (3) providing accessible resources.