An understanding of economic development can come from finding a definition of the process that is applicable in a specific locale where enterprise development is observed.
Enterprise and economic development — an expression emphasizing that the two processes work together. Both take place in a location. Enterprise development is the expansion of existing operations in place or somewhere else after a site search. Economic development happens in a new place when an enterprise is relocated. An entrepreneurial ventures startup has to be someplace. Improving operations in place or striving for a higher levels of excellence are enterprise development efforts. They lead to economic development when successful or, at least, they may lead to sustaining the vitality of an area economy.
Economic development observers are able to see that in some places the process is spontaneous. Places seeking to participate in the process may have organizations enticing and providing assistance to prospects on their behalf. It's not unusual to find governments and politicians jumping in on enterprise and economic development in an effort to manipulate outcomes.
Definitions used in organizing job descriptions for economic develop practitioners, for example those among .network mission contacts, can be excellent guides when those who put them together look into the particular assets and resources of their communities while taking into consideration the wants and needs those who live and work there. Locational competitive strengths need to be understood for effective economic development marketing.
Understanding economic development locally is essential for area and local development representatives to be able to set their goals. Typically used operative words and phrases threaded throughout a myriad of economic development definitions are useful references when the challenge is to facilitate a mission within the process aimed at taking a best practice approach.
A collection of definitions is provided below. We (who we are) provide a variety of them, making the collection a one-stop source for finding all of the key operative words and phrases typically used in the plethora of definitions of economic development that exist. The left-pointing browse button at the top of this page is linked to a collection of phrased terms and expressions that begin with the word economic. The right-pointing button is linked to additional resources.
economic development:
... (is about) jobs, income, and community prosperity—is a continuing challenge to modern society. To meet this challenge, economic developers must use imagination and common sense, coupled with the tools of public and private finance, politics, planning, micro- and macroeconomics, engineering, and real estate.
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economic development:
... (is about the) creation of jobs and wealth, and the improvement of quality of life. Economic development can also be described as a process that influences growth and restructuring of an economy to enhance the economic well being of a community.
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Related: definitions of jobs creation; wealth; economy; community |
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economic development:
... (is) fundamentally about enhancing the factors of productive capacity—land, labor, capital, and technology - of a national, state or local economy
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economic development:
... (is) the process within an economy that sustains vitality and fosters growth for a location.
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economic development:
... (is the) deliberate effort to improve the economy of a specified geographic area, which can be as large as an entire nation-state or as limited as a city neighborhood ... (it) can be a specifically undertaken activity, the same intended consequences might also take place spontaneously, without any deliberate efforts to achieve them. However, the fact that desired improvements do not often appear spontaneously is the reason that the deliberate practice of economic development has arisen.
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Related: definition of community economic development |
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economic development:
... (is a) process whereby simple, low-income national economies are transformed into modern industrial economies. Theories of economic development — the evolution of poor countries dependent on agriculture or resource extraction into prosperous countries with diversified economies—are of critical importance to Third World nations. Economic development projects have typically involved large capital investments in infrastructure (roads, irrigation networks, etc.), industry, education, and financial institutions. More recently, the realization that creating capital-intensive industrial sectors provides only limited employment and can disrupt the rest of the economy has led to smaller-scale economic development programs that aim to utilize the specific resources and natural advantages of developing countries and to avoid disruption of their social and economic structures.
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economic development:
... refers to a sustainable increase in living standards. It implies increased per capita income, better education and health as well as environmental protection.
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economic development:
... (is) the development of economic wealth of countries or regions for the well-being of their inhabitants. From a policy perspective, economic development can be defined as efforts that seek to improve the economic well-being and quality of life for a community by creating and/or retaining jobs and supporting or growing incomes and the tax base.
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Related: definitions of country; economic wealth; quality of life; jobs retention; tax base |
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economic development:
... (as the) adopted AEDC definition was "the process of creating wealth through the mobilization of human, financial, capital, physical, and natural resources to generate marketable goods and services.” Other definitions include: The purposeful intervention into an economy to improve economic well-being; The process that influences growth and restructuring of an economy to enhance the economic well being of a community; The creation of jobs and wealth, and the improvement of quality of life.
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economic development:
... (is a) process of creating wealth through the mobilization of human, financial, capital, physical and natural resources to generate marketable goods and services. (Area and local development representatives as practitioners have the role of influencing) ... the process for the benefit of the community through expanding job opportunities and the tax base—American Economic Development Council. AEDC later reaffirmed its definition, adding an observation by Ronald J. Swager, PhD, that economic developers as representatives of locations are essentially involved in a specialized form of marketing
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Related: definition of marketing; economic development marketing |
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economic development:
... (is) any effort or undertaking which aids in the growth of the economy.
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Related: definitions of growth; nonprofit; economic development organization |
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economic development:
... (is about) efforts to increase employment opportunities by getting new businesses to relocate in a community or existing businesses to expand. It differs from job development in the sense that it seeks to increase the pool of available work rather than soliciting employers to post openings for jobs that already exist.
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Related: definitions of relocation, expansion, labor pool, laborforce, workforce |
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economic development:
... (is a) process whereby countries raise incomes per capita and become industrialized
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Related: definitions of industrial development; growth and development |
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economic development:
... (is a) process of raising the level of prosperity and material living in a society through increasing the productivity and efficiency of its economy. In less industrialized regions, this process is believed to be achieved by an increase in industrial production and a relative decline in the importance of agricultural production.
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Related: definitions of productivity; socioeconomic development |
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economic development:
... actions taken to improve the ability of people to more productively use capital and natural and human resources in the production of goods and services.
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Related: definitions of human resources; goods and services |
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economic development:
... the process of promoting, initiating, supporting, and/or facilitating the creation of wealth and employment opportunities.
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Related: definition of economic developer |
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economic development:
... a rise in real income per person; usually associated with new technology that increases productivity or resources.— / (note)
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Related: definition of technology |
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economic development:
... stabilization, retention or expansion of the economic base and quality
employment opportunities.
Source: Brian Ohm , professor, University of Wisconsin Extension, Madison, WI
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Related: definitions of stabilization, retention, expansion; economic base |
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economic development:
... increasing the flow of capital through the community and reducing its leakage.
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Related: definition of economic developer |
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economic development:
... has its roots in the Industrial Revolution.
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