A survey instrument, Higher Education Economic Development Survey (HEEDS), designed to measure research administrators' perception of current involvement of state universities and land grant institutions in economic development, was developed and validated. The instrument consists of 56 items concerning presently occurring and normative economic development activities. Surveys (N=416) were mailed in the summer of 1989 (244 were eventually analyzed) to research administrators in higher education. Five factors accounting for 72.1% of the total variance emerged: (1) capacity building; (2) technology development; (3) research, analysis, evaluation; (4) human resource development; and (5) new business development. Each factor confirmed an underlying dimension theoretically included during developmental stages of the instrument. Multiple analyses of variance were also computed indicating that HEEDS does reflect the theoretical dimensions underlying its construction. The instrument is recommended for use by higher education administrators in assessing their institutions' unique economic development strategies. Contains 186 references. (GLR)