Presentation by Benoit Dostie, Professor, Department of Applied Economics, HEC Montréal, Canada at the 13th OECD Spatial Productivity Lab meeting held on 11 May 2021 in virtual format. More info https://oe.cd/spl

1. Adoption of advanced technologies by
Quebec firms
Benoit Dostie, HEC Montréal
Geneviève Dufour, CIRANO
Adoption of advanced technologies: Productivity and labour mar-
ket implications
May 11th, OECD Spatial Productivity Lab

2. Research questions
• Is there regional variation in the rate of adoption of
advanced technologies?
• In particular, how does Québec compares to the rest of
Canada?
• Can we identify some drivers of adoption?
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3. Data: Survey of Innovation and Business Strategy (SIBS),
by Statistics Canada
• The Survey of Innovation and Business Strategy (SIBS) is
a cross-economy survey of business enterprises and
industrial non-profit organizations in Canada.
• The SIBS collects complementary qualitative business
information, including market characteristics, use of
advanced technologies, business strategy, business
practices and participation in global value chains.
• 2009, 2012, 2017, 2020 (coming)
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4. Data: Survey of Innovation and Business Strategy (SIBS),
by Statistics Canada
• The regional stratification corresponds to enterprises with
at least $250,000 in revenues within the target industrial
groupings for the following regions: Atlantic; Quebec;
Ontario; and the Rest of Canada.
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5. Data: definition of advanced technologies (2009 and 2012)
1 Advanced computerized design and engineering
2 Advanced computerized processing, fabrication,
and assembly technologies
3 Advanced automated material handling
technologies
... ...
10 Advanced green technologies
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6. Data: advanced or emerging technologies (2017)
1 AT: Material handling, supply chain or logistics
technologies
... ...
7 AT: Clean technologies
1 ET: Artificial intelligence
... ...
6 ET: Integrated Internet of Things systems
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7. Regional variation in the adoption rate of advanced tech-
nologies 2017
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8. Regional variation in the adoption rate of emerging tech-
nologies 2017
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9. Regional variation QC vs ROC
Regional variations remain even taking into account:
• Subsidiary status
• Location of head office
• Exporting activities
• Manufacturing/Services
• Percentage of employees with a university degree
• Use of government programs
• Number of employees (firm size)
• Industry
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10. Drivers of adoption
• Firm size: larger firms are more likely to adopt advanced or
emerging technologies ++++
• Firms with business activities outside Canada (exports)
+++
• Also firms with more competitors ++
• Percentage of employees with a university degree +
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11. Conclusion and avenues for future research
• Report based on those results (and more)
coming soon.
• SIBS 2020 coming.
• Linking productivity measures
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