This brief offers insight into the role of headquarters recruitment in economic development and South Carolina’s present condition in this area. Headquarters recruitment is an economic development tactic that fosters the creation or relocation of firms’ administrative and management units in a particular locale. Such efforts also focus on the retention of existing corporate headquarters. As a strategy, headquarters recruitment is underexploited in South Carolina, but it merits consideration as previous studies point to a number of ways in which a city or region benefits from hosting headquarters.

This brief addresses the relationship between the organizational structure that facilitates economic development and economic development outcomes. First, this brief will examine the current organizational structure that facilitates economic development within South Carolina. Next, we will observe selected performance criteria and highlight states that are comparable to South Carolina under these criteria. Finally the brief will inspect the recent literature for clues that may point to improvement methods that are potentially useful for South Carolina.