Community business in place: a working paper
This short working paper is about community businesses, the places that they exist in and how those two things interact. It aims to explore evidence about their relationship in three broad question areas:
- Business creation in place: in which places are individual community businesses created, and is there something particular about those places?
- Geographic clustering of businesses: is it possible to encourage places to grow an ecosystem of community businesses?
- Impact on place: what do community businesses do to the places they exist in?
The paper was written by Renaisi CEO, John Hitchin, as part of an evaluation and learning review of Power to Change’s Community Business Fund, led by Renaisi.
The Community Business Fund is aimed at community businesses who need funding for a business development project that will make them more sustainable, making grant awards of between £50,000 and £300,000. This paper takes some of the learning from the evaluation of the Community Business Fund, and other work, and applies it to wider questions about community businesses, the places that they exist in and how those two things interact.
