Barriers and Drivers to Accessing and Using Workforce and Technical Assistance Resources for Small and Medium Manufacturers (SMMs) in Rural Regions

Sarah Lyon-Hill, Margaret Cowell, Scott Tate and Albert Alwang

Economic Development Quarterly, 2019, vol. 33, issue 1, 51-60

Abstract: Workforce shortages and market shifts have left many small and medium manufacturers (SMMs) struggling to maintain their operations. Still some SMMs tend not to utilize the workforce development and technical assistance resources available to them. This is particularly true of those in more rural regions where manufacturing is even more essential to the sustained vitality of these economies. This study explores the factors preventing these firms from pursuing and accessing these services. The authors used surveys and interviews to engage manufacturers with fewer than 500 employees in rural Southwestern Virginia and identify factors limiting their participation in these services. Findings indicate constant and consistent outreach to SMMs, regular engagement in social and economic networks, and a diverse array of services tailored to rural SMMs’ needs to play key roles in developing productive partnerships between SMMs and resource providers.

Keywords: rural; manufacturing; workforce; technical assistance; resources (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0891242418816380 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecdequ:v:33:y:2019:i:1:p:51-60

DOI: 10.1177/0891242418816380

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Economic Development Quarterly
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().