Business performance and ownership

Description:

This paper examines the maturation process of firms that enter an industry by constructing new plant and investigates the extent to which improvements in the performance of an entry cohort are the result of a selection process that culls out the most inefficient entrants or of a learning process that allows survivors to improve their performance relative to incumbent firms. Both selection and evolutionary learning are related to post-entry performance. Despite the difference in the effect of selection and learning on the amount of post-entry growth, selection per se is a more important contributor to overall growth of a cohort.

Description:

This study examines the characteristics of small and medium-sized firms that perform training. It uses data taken from a recent Statistics Canada survey that permit firms' training decisions to be analyzed within the broader context of their many activities and strategies.

The study finds strong evidence for the hypothesis that human capital development facilitated by training is complementary to innovation and technological change. Training incidence is found to be closely related to the importance that a firm gives to research and development, the use of new technologies, and numerous other strategies that are related to innovation. Training is also greater where a firm emphasizes quality and a comprehensive human-resource strategy. The results point to the inherent complementarity of technology and human resources policy.

Description:

This study investigates differences in the policies being pursued by innovative and non-innovative firms. It focuses on a broad group of strategies -- in marketing, finance, production, management and human resources and asks whether there are key areas in which the strategies being followed by innovative and non-innovative firms differ. It also asks how the activities of firms in each of these areas differs. Finally, it compares the performance of innovative and non-innovative firms. The study finds that innovative firms place a greater emphasis on management, human resources, marketing, financing, government programs and services, and production efficiencies. In most of these areas, innovative firms pursue activities more intensively. Finally, innovative firms are more successful than non-innovative firms.

Description:

This study examines the differences in strategies and activities pursued by a sample of more-successful and less-successful group of growing small- and medium-sized enterprises. Amongst other matters, it examines different functional strategies -- the importance of management, human resource practices, marketing, financing, and the innovativeness of the firm. Innovative activities are the most important determinants of success; that is, for a wide range of industries, they serve to discriminate between the more- and the less-successful firms better than any other variable. Almost all of the strategy questions that relate to innovative activity receive higher scores from the more-successful group of firms than from the less-successful group of firms. This is also the case for innovative activities -- whether a firm possesses an R&D unit, its expenditure on R&D relative to total investment, and its R&D-to-sales ratio.

Description:

This paper uses job turnover data to compare how job creation, job destruction and net job change differ for small and large establishments in the Canadian manufacturing sector. It uses several different techniques to correct for the regression-to-the-mean problem that, it has been suggested, might incorrectly lead to the conclusion that small establishments create a disproportionate number of new jobs. It finds that net job creation for smaller establishments is greater than that of large establishments after such changes are made. The paper also compares the importance of small and large establishments in the manufacturing sectors of Canada and the United States. The Canadian manufacturing sector is shown to have both a larger proportion of employment in smaller establishments but also to have a small establishment sector that is growing in importance relative to that of the United States.

Description:

The statistical observation that small firms have created the majority of new jobs during the 1980s has had a tremendous influence on public policy. Governmentshave looked to the small firm sector for employment growth, and have promoted policies to augment this expansion. However, recent research in the US suggeststhat net job creation in the small firm sector may have been overestimated, relative to that in large firms. This paper addresses various measurement issues raised inthe recent research, and uses a very unique Canadian longitudinal data set that encompasses all companies in the Canadian economy to reassess the issue of jobcreation by firm size. We conclude that over the 1978-92 period, for both the entire Canadian economy and the manufacturing sector, the growth rate of (net)employment decreases monotonically as the size of firm increases, no matter which method of sizing firms is used. The small firm sector has accounted for adisproportionate share of both gross job gains and job losses, and in that aggregate, accounted for a disproportionate share of the employment increase over theperiod. Measurement does matter, however, as the magnitude of the difference in the growth rates of small and large firms is very sensitive to the measurementapproaches used. The paper also produces results for various industrial sectors, asks whether the more rapid growth in industries with a high proportion of smallfirms is responsible for the findings at the all-economy level, and examines employment growth in existing small and large firms (ie excluding births). It is found thatemployment growth in the population of existing small and large firms is very similar.

Description:

Changing economic conditions affect some industries more than others.

Description:

Government transfer payments can add another dimension to judging regional economic performance. This article looks at sub-provincial areas and the effect of transfer payments to lessen economic inequality in these areas.

Description: The Business Register (BR) is Statistics Canada's continuously-maintained central repository of baseline information on businesses and institutions operating in Canada. As a statistical register, it provides listings of units and related attributes required for survey sampling frames, data integration, stratification and business demographic statistics. The BR is a major pillar of the agency's business statistics programs, including the Census of Agriculture.

Description: The survey collects financial data from electric utilities in Canada. The information is used as input to the Canadian System of National Accounts. Federal (National Energy Board) and provincial agencies are also provided with data on a regular basis.

Description: Liquidity and access to liquidity over the next three months, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), business employment size, type of business, business activity and majority ownership, third quarter of 2024.

Description: Business or organization plans to apply for debt financing, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), business employment size, type of business, business activity and majority ownership, third quarter of 2024.

Description: Ability of the business or organization to take on more debt, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), business employment size, type of business, business activity and majority ownership, third quarter of 2024.

Description: Business' or organization's level of confidence in making its debt payments in full and on time, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), business employment size, type of business, business activity and majority ownership, third quarter of 2024.

Description: Percentage and average percentage of workforce anticipated to work on-site or remotely over the next three months, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), business employment size, type of business, business activity and majority ownership, third quarter of 2024.

Description: Future outlook over the next 12 months, by percentage ranges, North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), business employment size, type of business, business activity and majority ownership, third quarter of 2024.

Description:

This table presents experimental counts of businesses that open, close, or continue their operations each month for various levels of geographic and industry detail across Canada going back to January 2015. The data are available as series that are adjusted for seasonality. The level of geographic detail includes national, provincial and territorial, as well as census metropolitan areas (CMA). The data are also broken down by two-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) with some common aggregations, including one for the total business sector for national, provincial and territorial levels of geography.

Description: This table presents experimental counts of businesses that open, close, or continue their operations each month for various levels of geographic and industry detail across Canada going back to January 2015. The data are available as series that are adjusted for seasonality. The level of geographic detail includes national, provincial and territorial, as well as census metropolitan areas (CMA). The data are also broken down by employment size and two-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) with some common aggregations, including one for the total business sector.

Description: This tool includes information collected as part of the Quarterly Financial Statistics for Enterprises program, which provides data used to measure the financial position and performance of incorporated businesses by industry aggregations.

Description: The need for alternative data sources is of growing importance for both supplementing Statistics Canada's data holdings and for nowcasting economic activity. In response to this need, Statistics Canada initiated the development of a Real-time Local Business Conditions Index (RT-LBCI). The index brings together data from a few different sources, including Google's Places API (containing data on temporary and permanent businesses closures), TomTom Real-time traffic API (road traffic data), as well as information from Statistics Canada data holdings (monthly retail and wholesale, Business Register, etc.). The project aims to compute a near real-time index of economic activity in Canadian major cities.

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: From July 2nd to August 6th, 2024, Statistics Canada conducted the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions. The purpose of this survey is to collect information on businesses in Canada related to emerging issues. This infographic presents key results from this.

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: The newsletter offers information aimed at three main groups, businesses (small to medium), communities and ethno-cultural groups/communities. Articles and outreach materials will assist their understanding of national and local data from the many relevant sources found on the Statistics Canada website.

Description: Businesses have faced numerous challenges since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health restrictions on business and personal activities aimed at stopping the spread of the virus were associated with a slowing of economic activity. This article examines how new businesses that entered after the beginning of the pandemic fared compared with previous entry cohorts.

Description: This article explores results from the survey related to the use of AI in producing goods and delivering services. Furthermore, this article explains the specific types of AI being used, such as machine learning, virtual agents and voice recognition, as well as the impact of AI adoption on tasks performed by employees and on employment levels. It involves an examination of the data produced by the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions.

Description: With the proportion of small businesses making up nearly all of the employer businesses in Canada, small businesses are an important role in employing Canadians and are a significant driver towards economic recovery. This article provides insights on the expectations of small businesses as well as the unique conditions faced by these businesses in the second quarter of 2024. It involves an examination of the data produced by the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions.

Description: From April 2nd to May 6th, 2024, Statistics Canada conducted the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions. The purpose of this survey is to collect information on businesses in Canada related to emerging issues. This infographic presents key results from this.

Description: The pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the Canadian economy. This impact was uneven across different workers and businesses. However, there is little information available on how businesses were affected by and survived through the pandemic according to the characteristics of their owners, especially those owned by certain groups such as women and immigrants. This article uses a linkage of the monthly business openings and closures with the Canadian Employer-Employee Dynamics Database and the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy to study the survival rate and employment growth of businesses by gender, and immigrant status of owners.

Description: Reports on Special Business Projects is an occasional series that focuses primarily on the results of special surveys or special projects conducted by the Centre for Special Business Projects. The reports cover a wide range of topics, which include business performance and trends, custom tabulations of business data, economic impact studies, new measurement frameworks and indicators to support program development, monitoring and performance assessment, territorial economic indicators and other special studies.

Description:

These papers consist of research related to business and trade statistics.

Description:

The Unified Enterprise Survey (UES) incorporates several annual business surveys into an integrated survey framework. It aims to ensure Statistics Canada receives consistent and integrated data from many types and sizes of businesses, with enough detail to produce accurate provincial statistics. This year, 17 industry surveys are included in the UES, as well as two cross-industry surveys of large enterprises.

Description: The Business Register (BR) is Statistics Canada's continuously-maintained central repository of baseline information on businesses and institutions operating in Canada. As a statistical register, it provides listings of units and related attributes required for survey sampling frames, data integration, stratification and business demographic statistics. The BR is a major pillar of the agency's business statistics programs, including the Census of Agriculture.

Description: The survey collects financial data from electric utilities in Canada. The information is used as input to the Canadian System of National Accounts. Federal (National Energy Board) and provincial agencies are also provided with data on a regular basis.

Description: This annual survey collects information on Canadian companies involved in the contract drilling and other services to the oil and gas extraction industry. The survey collects financial and operating statistics.

Description: This annual survey collects information on Canadian companies involved in the oil and gas exploration, development and production industry. The survey collects financial, income and balance sheet information as well as operating statistics.

Description: This annual survey collects data on the general position of Canadian companies primarily engaged in the gathering and transportation of crude oil and other petroleum products.

Description: This annual survey collects data on the general position of Canadian companies primarily engaged in the transportation and distribution of natural gas.

Description: This survey collects the financial and operating data needed to develop national and regional economic policies and programs.

Description: This survey collects the financial and operating data needed to develop national and regional economic policies and programs.