Consequently, Tucson should help local firms expand and attempt to maintain their corporate headquarters locally as they grow. There are several advantages to expanding and retaining corporate headquarters from local firms. First, local firms tend to be more involved in the community than regional offices of firms located elsewhere. Additionally, these firms import revenues from other regions and are less likely to cease local operations resulting from a slowdown in business activity. This Strategic Economic Plan applies an objective, quantifiable screening process to identify and prioritize key target industries that have the highest economic impact on the Greater Tucson region.
Many desirable characteristics are difficult to measure over an entire industrial group.
However, a considerable amount of regional economic data for industrial classifications is available at the two-digit SIC level. Consequently, national, state, and county level economic data by industry were used to develop meaningful measures for screening criteria. The screening criteria were used in the screening process to prioritize industries targeted for business attraction. These criteria are measurable variables that can be compared across industries and they represent industrial characteristics that are desirable to the Tucson economy. For example, community leaders have indicated that they want to recruit high-wage firms to Tucson.