ITIF: TN has strengths, but underperforms as hub for key innovation sectors

By Milt Capps
Published Wednesday, May 7, 2025 8:49 am

TENNESSEE's progress in economic development, education, research and related fields is genuine, but it is apparently still punching beneath its weight, in the eyes of numerous analysts, particularly those who focus on states' relative capacities for innovation and commercialization.

Their periodic reports citing Tennessee's progress and its pockets of underperformance relative to some of our peers are discomfiting to say the least for readers who do not simply yearn, but who also work to create or attract more Tennessee jobs, wealth and state domestic product in the digital-technology and life-science sectors.

This week, with a virtual thud, the latest comprehensive ranking of the Fifty States' progress along these lines arrived from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF). The full ITIF report with dynamic data is here (here's static PDF).

Bird's-eye view: One highlight of the ITIF report is the chart below, which shows Tennessee lagging on the basis of a locational-concentration metric in Pharmaceuticals and Biotech; IT and Information Services; Computers, Electrical and Optical Products; and, Other Transportation.

That said, Tennessee is depicted as relatively more concentrated with respect to Motor Vehicles, Electrical Equipment, and Machinery & Equipment.

Particularly striking is a second ITIF chart that shows employment concentration in our industries and sub-industries.

This second chart is best viewed dynamically on the ITIF website here. Click each of its four category headers to peruse more data and be sure to "mouse-over" each segment and sub-segment to reveal this chart's labels and other descriptors, which really paint the most advanced industries' concentrations in darkest light.

VNC notes that the recently organized Tennessee Technology Advancement Consortium (TTAC) is scheduled to meet June 25, according to a spokesperson for Tennessee Technology Development Corporation (TTDC) dba Launch Tennessee, who also said the meeting is closed to the public.

The Consortium's stated aim is that of "fostering a thriving innovation ecosystem within Tennessee's universities." LaunchTN is a nonprofit subsidiary of Tennessee Economic and Community Development (TNECD), the state Cabinet agency led by Commissioner and LaunchTN Chairman Stuart McWhorter and LaunchTN CEO Lindsey Cox.

P.S. - Hat Tip to ITIF researcher Meghan Ostertag for her work on the ITIF report. We hope she'll remain in the field.-Editor VNC

. last edited 1130 7 May 2025