This dashboard captures "entrepreneurial dynamism", which is a measure of performance across three dimensions:

1. Startups: establishments that existed in 2016 and/or 2017, but not earlier
2. Stage 2 Businesses: establishments with 10-99 employees
3. High Growth Businesses: establishments with at least 75% employment growth from 2013-2017

For calendar year 2017, the number of establishments within these three dimensions was tabulated for each Appalachian county, as a percentage of that county's total establishments. Each Appalachian county's performance was ranked across all three dimensions. These three rankings were averaged to create a measure of dynamism. Each dynamism measure tracks a county's performance in relation to all 420 counties within the Appalachian Regional Commission's service area. Counties are divided into quintiles, with top performers (i.e. high dynamism) ranking in the top 20% of all counties in the Appalachian Region. In contrast, low dynamism counties rank in the bottom twenty percent of counties.

The Appalachian Entrepreneurial Dynamism Dashboard is intended to be used in combination with the Appalachian Entrepreneurial Resources Inventory, which provides detailed information on entrepreneurial competitive assets and program gaps to enable community members, economic developers, business service providers, and potential entrepreneurs to better understand how their county performs in these key areas related to entrepreneurial development. These data present a single snapshot in time, so they should not be considered the final word on a region's entrepreneurial performance