IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp18837.html

Employer Perspectives on AI in SMEs: Policy Insights for Productivity and Sustainable Careers

Author

Listed:
  • Fang, Tony

    (Memorial University of Newfoundland)

  • Harrison, Jennifer

    (EM Normandie Business School)

Abstract

This practitioner insights paper draws on employer perspectives to examine the challenges and opportunities of AI adoption in SMEs and to develop policy insights to enhance productivity and support sustainable careers. Policy insights are derived from a survey of 1,700 business owners, executives, and senior managers, with particular attention to SMEs operating in Atlantic Canada. We find that employers associated AI with productivity and efficiency gains, although adoption remained patchy across firms and regions. Many reported uncertainties regarding future skill needs, emphasized compliance training, and viewed AI primarily as a productivity tool. This paper offers rare employer perspectives on the intersection of AI, productivity, and sustainable careers to inform policy. Policymakers and multiple actors across the sustainable career ecosystem can support SME productivity by strengthening digital capabilities, workforce planning systems, and regional skills ecosystems. Such efforts may help ensure that AI adoption contributes to both productivity and sustainable career outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Fang, Tony & Harrison, Jennifer, 2026. "Employer Perspectives on AI in SMEs: Policy Insights for Productivity and Sustainable Careers," IZA Discussion Papers 18837, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18837
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp18837.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard Florida & Charlotta Mellander & Kevin Stolarick, 2008. "Inside the black box of regional development: human capital, the creative class and tolerance," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(5), pages 615-649, September.
    2. Carter McCormack & Ryan Macdonald, 2026. "Measuring Canada’s economic performance relative to the United States," Economic and Social Reports 202600300004e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies and Modelling Branch.
    3. Fang, Tony & Gunderson, Morley & Hartley, John & King, Graham & Ming, Hui, 2025. "Determinants and Effects of Remote Work Arrangements: Evidence from an Employer Survey," IZA Discussion Papers 18020, IZA Network @ LISER.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jos� Lobo & Charlotta Mellander & Kevin Stolarick & Deborah Strumsky, 2014. "The Inventive, the Educated and the Creative: How Do They Affect Metropolitan Productivity?," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 155-177, February.
    2. Hans R. A. Koster & Jos N. van Ommeren & Piet Rietveld, 2016. "Historic amenities, income and sorting of households," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 16(1), pages 203-236.
    3. Krenz, Astrid, 2016. "Agglomeration of knowledge in the German regional economy," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 277, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    4. Qian Zhou & Zhipeng Qi, 2025. "How does digital inclusion finance alleviate air pollution? Spatial evidence from 1318 counties in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(12), pages 29315-29344, December.
    5. Paula Prenzel & Simona Iammarino, 2018. "Ageing labour: How does demographic change affect regional human capital?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1832, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Aug 2018.
    6. Niclas Berggren & Therese Nilsson, 2013. "Does Economic Freedom Foster Tolerance?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(2), pages 177-207, May.
    7. Batabyal, Amitrajeet A. & Yoo, Seung Jick, 2018. "Schumpeterian creative class competition, innovation policy, and regional economic growth," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 86-97.
    8. Zsolt Csáfordi & László Lőrincz & Balázs Lengyel & Károly Miklós Kiss, 2020. "Productivity spillovers through labor flows: productivity gap, multinational experience and industry relatedness," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 86-121, February.
    9. Wei-Bin Zhang, 2016. "Exchange Values of Gold, Land, Physical Capital, and Human Capital in a Neoclassical Growth Model," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 3, pages 265-286, September.
    10. Sara C. Santos Cruz & Aurora A. C. Teixeira, 2021. "Spatial analysis of new firm formation in creative industries before and during the world economic crisis," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 67(2), pages 385-413, October.
    11. Luís Carazza & Raul da Mota Silveira Neto, 2021. "Evaluating the Regional Expansion of Brazil’s Federal System of Vocational and Technological Education," Revista Brasileira de Estudos Regionais e Urbanos, Associação Brasileira de Estudos Regionais e Urbanos (ABER), vol. 15(2), pages 212-246.
    12. Laura Resmini & Laura Casi, 2013. "Spatial complexity and interactions in regions' FDI attractiveness," ERSA conference papers ersa13p1063, European Regional Science Association.
    13. Christoph Alfken, 2015. "Ich will nicht nach Berlin! – Life course analysis of inter-regional migration behaviour of people from the field of design and advertising," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 47(10), pages 2187-2203, October.
    14. Haifeng Qian, 2013. "Diversity Versus Tolerance: The Social Drivers of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in US Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(13), pages 2718-2735, October.
    15. Ylenia Brilli & Marco Tonello, 2015. "The contemporaneous effect of education on adolescent crime. Mechanisms and evidence from regional divides," CHILD Working Papers Series 41 JEL Classification: I2, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    16. Ann Marie Fiore & Linda S. Niehm & Jessica L. Hurst & Jihyeong Son & Amrut Sadachar & Daniel W. Russell & David Swenson & Christopher Seeger, 2015. "Will They Stay or Will They Go? Community Features Important in Migration Decisions of Recent University Graduates," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 29(1), pages 23-37, February.
    17. Ye Seul Choi & Up Lim, 2015. "Effects of Regional Creative Milieu on Interregional Migration of the Highly Educated in Korea: Evidence from Hierarchical Cross-Classified Linear Modeling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(12), pages 1-18, December.
    18. Philipp Gareis & Tom Broekel, 2022. "The Spatial Patterns of Student Mobility Before, During and After the Bologna Process in Germany," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 113(3), pages 290-309, July.
    19. Tony Fang & Emin Gahramanov & Ming Hui & Xueli Tang, 2026. "Remote work intensity and wages: evidence from a representative canadian labour force survey," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 65(3), pages 1-20, September.
    20. Annie Tubadji & Thomas Colwill & Don Webber, 2021. "Voting with your feet or voting for Brexit: The tale of those stuck behind," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(2), pages 247-277, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18837. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Mark Fallak (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaalu.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.