Acquire Research Institute
Research for Builders, Not Academics.
The Acquire Research Institute is the research division of Acquire Publishing. We conduct original, transparent research on entrepreneurship, business ownership, small business economics, and wealth building — the kind of intelligence you can actually use, with methodology you can actually verify.
Why a Research Institute?
Most entrepreneur research is either academic (hard to apply) or marketing disguised as research (untrustworthy). The Acquire Research Institute was created to fill the gap: rigorous enough to trust, practical enough to use.
Every research project the Institute publishes includes:
- Transparent methodology — sample size, data source, collection method, and known limitations are always disclosed.
- No invented statistics — we do not fabricate, estimate without disclosure, or pass off marketing claims as research findings.
- Honest uncertainty — where the data is weak, we say so. Where the conclusion is tentative, we label it.
- Practical application — every report includes a section on what the findings mean for an entrepreneur who has to make decisions this week.
Research Projects
Current and planned research from the Acquire Research Institute. Projects marked "In Progress" have active data collection underway.
The State of the 3 A.M. Entrepreneur
A comprehensive survey of entrepreneurs who wake up at 3 a.m. worried about payroll, cash flow, funding, customers, and the weight of ownership. What they're building, what's keeping them up, what's working, and what they wish they'd known.
State of AI for Local Business
How local business owners are actually using AI — adoption rates, use cases, satisfaction, spend, implementation barriers, and the gap between what's available and what's actually being used on Main Street.
Small Business Acquisition Economics
An analysis of small business acquisition data: seller financing terms, SBA loan statistics, valuation multiples by industry, and post-acquisition outcomes.
Direct Mail Response Rates by Industry
A benchmarking study of direct mail response rates across publishing, financial services, insurance, and B2B — with analysis of what drives above-average performance.
The Entrepreneur's Reading & Learning Habits
What successful entrepreneurs actually read, how they find books and field manuals, how they apply what they learn, what formats they prefer, and how they convert reading into action.
The State of Business Credit for Small Business Owners
How small business owners access credit — approval rates, denial reasons, credit score thresholds, common application mistakes, and the gap between what lenders say and what owners experience.
The Owner Dependency Index
How dependent are small businesses on their owners? A measurement of owner-dependency across industries, revenue bands, and years in business — and what the businesses that break free have in common.
The First-Generation Wealth Builder Study
A longitudinal study of first-generation entrepreneurs building wealth through business ownership. Pathways, obstacles, strategies, and outcomes — reported transparently with all limitations disclosed.
The Cash Flow Crisis Report
How cash flow disruptions affect small business survival, growth, and owner health. Frequency, causes, recovery time, and the practices of businesses that rarely face cash crunches.
The Entrepreneur Intelligence Quotient
What separates entrepreneurs who consistently make good decisions from those who don't? A study of decision-making frameworks, information diets, and the habits of effective business thinkers.
The Identity-Outcome Correlation Study
An investigation into how entrepreneurial identity — self-concept, beliefs about ownership, and perceived agency — correlates with business outcomes, decision quality, and resilience after setbacks.
Decision-Making Under Entrepreneurial Pressure
How do entrepreneurs actually make high-stakes decisions when information is incomplete? A study of decision processes, cognitive biases, and the practices of entrepreneurs with superior decision track records.
Purpose Clarity and Business Longevity
Does having a clearly articulated purpose correlate with business survival, growth, or owner satisfaction? A mixed-methods investigation of purpose as a measurable business variable.
Character Development in Entrepreneurial Education
Can character — integrity, discipline, resilience, fairness — be taught in entrepreneurial education, or is it assumed? A review of existing curricula, outcomes, and the case for deliberate character formation in business training.
The Resilience Architecture Study
What separates entrepreneurs who recover from major setbacks from those who don't? An investigation into the beliefs, practices, relationships, and identity structures that predict entrepreneurial resilience.
Human Flourishing and Entrepreneurial Outcomes
A broad-scope investigation into the relationship between human flourishing — measured across dimensions of purpose, relationships, health, character, and contribution — and entrepreneurial performance, satisfaction, and longevity.
Institute Standards
These are non-negotiable for every research project we publish.
Transparent Methodology
Sample size, data source, collection method, survey instrument, and known limitations — all disclosed.
No Invented Statistics
We do not fabricate data, estimate without disclosure, or pass off marketing claims as research.
Honest Uncertainty
Where the data is weak, we say so. Where the conclusion is tentative, we label it clearly.
Research Ethics
The Acquire Research Institute operates under a simple ethical framework:
- Informed consent: Research participants are informed of the study's purpose, how their data will be used, and their right to withdraw at any time.
- Privacy protection: Individual responses are anonymized. We do not publish or sell personally identifiable research data. Aggregate findings only.
- Honest limitations: Every research publication includes a clear statement of limitations — sample size, response bias, self-selection effects, and anything else a reasonable reader should know before relying on the findings.
- No cherry-picking: We publish findings honestly — including when the data contradicts our expectations or the results are inconclusive. We do not suppress data we don't like.
How to Participate
The Acquire Research Institute is building its survey panel and data-collection infrastructure. Entrepreneurs, business owners, and professionals who want to contribute to practical research can participate in several ways:
Join the Panel
Register for the research panel and receive invitations when new studies open. Participation is always voluntary.
Partner
Chambers of commerce, business organizations, and industry associations can partner for survey distribution and co-branded research.
Sponsor
Organizations interested in sponsoring specific research topics. Sponsorship is disclosed. Sponsors do not influence findings.
Partner With the Institute
The Acquire Research Institute welcomes partnerships with chambers of commerce, business organizations, coworking spaces, and industry associations for survey distribution, data sharing, and co-branded research.
Acquire Research Institute is a division of Acquire Publishing, a division of Acquire, Inc. All research is educational and informational. Research findings do not constitute financial, legal, investment, or tax advice. Survey data is self-reported and subject to response bias, self-selection bias, and other known limitations disclosed in each report. No invented statistics. Every finding is cited with methodology, sample size, data source, and known limitations. View our Earnings Disclaimer, Legal & Tax Disclaimer, and AI Disclaimer.