New Economy Businesses in Rural,Urban, and Metropolitan Locations

Abstract The service sector has replaced manufacturing as the primary employer in the United States. Fastest growing within this sector are producer services, i.e., those businesses that provide service inputs to other businesses and government. Theorists posit that the propensity of producer services to locate in metro areas advantages cities in relation to rural areas. They argue that significant numbers of producer services are unlikely to locate in rural areas due to the economic and cultural benefits offered by central cities and that producer services in rural locations are qualitatively different from metro firms. Perceptions of the environment, management strategies, and community citizenship were analyzed with data from 259 producer service business owners and managers in Iowa rural, urban, and metropolitan communities. The findings point to qualitative differences between the businesses based on community size, but also many similarities were found. Rural producer services reported more community citizenship than other businesses.