The purpose of the proposed evaluation is to describe the extent to which existing local technology-oriented entrepreneurs currently make use of, or historically have made use of, the services of outside business advisors or of the University of Illinois related to business development.

Local technology-oriented entrepreneurs refers to those businesses located within a 20 mile radius of the Urbana-Champaign metropolitan area which have initialized operations within the past 5-7 years (1993-2000). It is expected that this historical "in-business" operational time period is most relevant as a measure of entrpreneurial success (i.e. businesses that started-up within the past 5-7 years are expected to be informational to this evaluation).

The services/resources terminology and definition is purposefully broad, as both type and source are unknown. University related services, both historically and currently provided, may have been availed outside of the College of Engineering. Services may have been provided through the University Library System, the Office of Strategic Business Initiatives (OSBI), the Research and Technology Management Office (RTMO), or other University facilities. Further, outside business advisory services may have been utilized by technology-oriented entrepreneurs from any number of existing third party sources which are also unknown.