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Innovation in immigrant-owned firms

Author

Listed:
  • Yuri Ostrovsky

    (Statistics Canada)

  • Garnett Picot

    (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Research and Evaluation Branch)

Abstract

We use data from a nationally representative survey of Canadian firms in 2011, 2014 and 2017 and ask whether immigrant-owned small- and medium-sized firms were more likely than those owned by Canadian-born individuals to implement an innovation. We examined the likelihood of implementing product, process, organizational and marketing innovations, and five types of intellectual property: registered trademarks, patents, registered industrial designs, trade secrets and non-disclosure agreements. The methodology consists of using a coarsened exact matching (CEM) followed by a probit-based analysis to control for both firm and owner characteristics. Both adjusted and unadjusted results indicate that an immigrant-owned firm was more likely to implement a product or process innovation, regardless of whether the immigrant owner was a recent or longer tenured immigrant.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuri Ostrovsky & Garnett Picot, 2021. "Innovation in immigrant-owned firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1857-1874, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:57:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s11187-020-00376-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s11187-020-00376-2
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    Cited by:

    1. Corvello, Vincenzo & Belas, Jaroslav & Giglio, Carlo & Iazzolino, Gianpaolo & Troise, Ciro, 2023. "The impact of business owners’ individual characteristics on patenting in the context of digital innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PA).
    2. Riillo, Cesare Fabio Antonio & Peroni, Chiara, 2022. "Immigration and entrepreneurship in Europe: cross-country evidence," MPRA Paper 114580, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Mazanai Musara & Cecile Nieuwenhuizen, 2021. "A value proposition mix framework of successful foreign-owned small and medium enterprises in South Africa," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 9(1), pages 612-632, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Immigrants; Firm owners; SME; Innovation; Matching;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • M21 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics - - - Business Economics

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