Tourist bureaus, information centres and other community organizations that make available information about local points of interest, cultural events, recreational activities, hotels, restaurants, medical and dental services and other community resources.

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Nonprofit organizations sponsored by private, local businesses which provide general information about products or services, reliability reports, background information regarding local businesses and records of the companies' complaint handling performances. Most Better Business Bureaus accept complaints against businesses and help to resolve disputes through mediation or binding arbitration utilizing volunteer arbitration panels.

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Associations formed by individual businesses in a particular industry that join together to assist one another with business problems, to promote their industry, to offer consumer information, and, in some cases, to handle consumer complaints. Some trade associations have established third-party dispute resolution programs to arbitrate disputes that cannot be resolved by the associations.

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Programs that register newly formed businesses according to the legal status under which they will operate (e.g., for-profit and nonprofit corporations, limited liability companies, general and limited partnerships, franchises and sole proprietorships) as well as record and reserve their legal name; register business opportunities; and/or issue licences or permits which provide written authorization for the operation of a business within a specific local jurisdiction.

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Expositions held at irregular intervals during which representatives of specific industries or trades exhibit their products for the benefit of the businessmen and women who attend as well as the general public. Trade shows may be local, regional, national or international in scope.

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Programs that provide technical assistance, financing and a wide variety of other services that support the attraction, expansion and retention of local businesses, assure their competitiveness and help them remain as assets to the local economy.

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Programs that produce statistics which relate to economic growth, regional economic development and the country’s position in the world economy. Included are such indicators as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Human Development Index (a measure developed by the United Nations which combines indicators of longevity, education and standard of living), employment and wage statistics, productivity measures, prices, money and security markets.

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Programs that conduct research which focuses on how society distributes scarce resources such as land, labour, raw materials and machinery to produce goods and services as well as the organizational frameworks related to these processes. Economists collect and analyze data, monitor economic trends and develop forecasts; and address issues such as energy costs, inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, business cycles, taxes and employment levels. Included are microeconomists who study the supply and demand decisions of individuals and firms; industrial economists who study the market structure of particular industries in terms of the number of competitors and the market decisions of competitive firms and monopolies; macroeconomists who study historical trends in the whole economy and forecast future trends in areas such as unemployment, inflation, economic growth, productivity and investment; international economists who study international financial markets, exchange rates, and the effects of various trade policies such as tariffs; labour economists who study the supply and demand for labour and the determination of wages; public finance economists who study the supply and demand for labour and the determination of wages; and econometricians who develop and use mathematical techniques such as calculus, game theory and regression analysis to formulate economic models.

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