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This article reviews sources of uncertainty in broadband provision data from Federal Communications Commission's Form 477 database, which is the largest publicly available broadband database for the United States. This uncertainty analysis reveals that reporting thresholds result in understating of broadband in rural areas serviced by smaller providers in the 1999–2004 ZIP code area dataset. In this same time series, the routine used to aggregate data to larger spatial units (i.e., counties) produces variations in the amount of autocorrelation detected by diagnostic spatial statistics. The amount of autocorrelation in the data also varies with the strategy implemented for interpolating suppressed data. This investigation also highlights the value of a spatial approach to visualizing and analyzing the impact of uncertainty on broadband availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although broadband Internet infrastructure is acknowledged as a key ingredient to competitiveness, an unfortunate aspect of current work is the dominant focus on households. Given the need for more research on the multidimensional relationship between broadband and businesses, or the broadband-business nexus, this study estimates econometric models to evaluate the impact of early broadband availability on future levels of business activity. Model results suggest regions with an early advantage in broadband provision had more business growth than other regions. Model results also highlight long-lasting spatial effects on business activity stemming from broadband spillovers from core hubs to neighboring areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As we begin to understand who uses particular social media platforms, this user information represents a way forward for understanding the types of research questions for which big data might prove valuable. In this respect, the use of social media data for analyzing entrepreneurial networks represents a promising research domain. Not only does the user profile of social media users overlap substantially with the profile of entrepreneurs, but research highlights that the entrepreneurial process is a fundamentally networked activity. Given this research promise, this study analyzes digitally mediated interactions using Twitter data collected about a variety of actors engaged in entrepreneurial networks for the United States over an eighteen-month period. Analytical results reveal that the hashtags used in this analysis (#smallbiz and #entrepreneur) do capture (albeit not exhaustively) well-known actors in entrepreneurial networks, as well as important subtleties in the geography of locales engaged in these networks. The article closes with an agenda for big data research on entrepreneurship that highlights the important role of geographers in unraveling these networked geographies given the complexities of ground-truthing geographic information from big data sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Investigate the connection between broadband and new business activity. • Instrumental variables approach based on development of the Internet by the U.S. military. • Broadband availability was associated with an increase in new business activity. • Broadband was associated net creation of new businesses. • Broadband may have crowded out business activity in the manufacturing industry. Research investigating the linkages between broadband and new business activity in countries around the world produce mixed results related to important nuances in this relationship pertaining to industry characteristics, geography, and the skill level of the workforce. Given these nuances, the goal of this study is to investigate the connection between broadband availability and new business activity, building on regional and rural-focused studies within the United States. Specifically, our paper conducts a nationwide assessment of the relationship between broadband and new business activity, in the early years of broadband in the late 1990s/early 2000s when it had the most potential to disrupt industries and open up new entrepreneurial opportunities. Using an instrumental variables approach based on the development of the Internet by the U.S. military, we estimate the impact of broadband availability on total and net new business creation. Results suggest that access to broadband was associated with an increase in new business activity and net creation of new businesses. We also find evidence that access to broadband was important in the creation of businesses in knowledge- oriented industries who benefited from the rise of the Internet. At the same time, we also find broadband may have crowded out business activity in the manufacturing industry. Combined, our results suggest disruptive innovations related to broadband Internet connections are important for small business creation in many, but not all industries. Given these linkages, expanding access to broadband may help generate new business activity and business growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study estimates econometric models to evaluate the linkage between broadband Internet connections and firms in counties across the urban hierarchy within the continental U. S. Industry-related variations in this relationship are also explored using varied definitions of the urban hierarchy. Model results indicate broadband presence in remote areas is not an explanatory factor of establishment presence. Results also suggest the manner in which the urban hierarchy is defined matters. Traditional metropolitan/nonmetropolitan and urban/rural splits of locales are insufficient to capture the geographic and industrial nuances behind this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Models estimated to examine the linkages between broadband speed and firms. [•] Both geographic and sectoral variations in relationship of interest examined. [•] Linkages between broadband speed and agricultural and rural establishments. [•] Broadband likely substitutes for agglomerative disadvantages of more remote locales. [•] Infrastructure quality critical to economic vitality of rural communities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]