CES is perhaps the most important consumer technology industry event in the world. If you want to know what new gadgets and devices will be on store shelves in the next year or what’s next in the world of consumer tech, you need look no further than the CES show floor. But the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which hosts CES, is doing more than just providing a space for tech giants to show what your next TV will look like, they’ve also produced a report that shows which states are doing the most to nurture and grow innovation.
Innovation Scorecard
The CTA 2020 U.S. Innovation Scorecard evaluates all 50 states and grades them on several quantitative and qualitative categories to figure out which states are doing the most to foster innovation. Startups, entrepreneurs and medium sized companies are all looking to take their business to the next level and they need a diverse array of tools to help them do that. The Scorecard is a way to encourage states to provide more commitment to advancing innovation.
The scorecards breaks states into different tiers: Innovation Champion; Innovation Leader; Innovation Adopter; and Modest Innovator. Placement in the tiers is calculated as a composite based on factors such as tax friendliness, advanced degrees, internet speed, entrepreneurial activity and ability to attract investment.This year’s highest scoring state was Colorado with Louisiana having the lowest score.
Winner and Loser
What did Colorado do that made it an Innovation Champion? For one, the CTA found that its small businesses created 511 jobs per 10,000 people in giving it an A+ in Entrepreneurial Activity. It also employs 51 tech jobs per 1,000 people and has a high percentage of citizens with advanced degrees. From a policy standpoint its tax scheme is considered business friendly and the corporate tax rate is 4.63%, good for a B. It also received a B for attracting investment due to the amount spent on R&D and venture capital, $764.63 and $259.85 respectively.
In comparison, Louisiana had less than half of the entrepreneurial activity (C-), had a little more than half the percentage of advanced degrees (F), less than half the tech jobs per 1,000 people (F) and only spent $58.80 on R&D and $3.22 on venture capital per capita (F).
The distribution of innovation tiers across the country is also interesting. The Midwest and Southwest seems to harbor the strongest concentration of Innovation Champions with the Southeastern part of the country having the lowest scoring states.
So while new 8K TVs, Sony made cars and high tech water purification systems are going to be exciting for consumers, tech businesses may want to pay more attention to the CTA scorecard if they want to know where they’ll get the most innovation support this year.
