Business growth

The effect of Business Accelerators and Incubators on business performance: Findings from the Business Accelerator and Incubator Performance Measurement Framework
August 2024
Based on survey findings from the first five years of Small Business Branch's Business Accelerator and Incubator Performance Measurement Framework (BAI PMF), this report provides a profile of companies receiving support from BAIs and estimates the impact of support on their economic performance.

The impact of the Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program on business closure and growth: Evidence from the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic
July 2024
This research report investigates the effects of HASCAP use on business closure and growth, while controlling for business characteristics, pre-pandemic attributes, and the concurrent use of other government intervention programs, such as the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA), and the Canada Emergency Commercial Rental Assistance (CECRA) initiatives. To isolate the effect of HASCAP support, a statistical technique widely used in empirical research was used to compare the performance of HASCAP-backed companies to otherwise similar companies that did not receive HASCAP support.

This study presents a description of Canadian firm size transitions of start-ups by examining five cohorts of firm entrants during the period 2002 to 2006. The study used  the National Accounts Longitudinal Microdata File (NALMF) up to 2014 in order to observe those start-ups employment size transitions (scale ups and scale downs).

Informed by extensive interviews conducted with capital providers and corporate executives the following paper captures stakeholder insights into the state of Canada's growth and transition capital markets, including: challenges inhibiting the availability of growth capital for medium-sized firms; common misperceptions concerning Canada's growth capital and alternative risk financing markets; and the continued role of the BDC in this rapidly evolving market.

The main objective of this paper is to understand the factors that have an impact on firm growth, specifically on Canadian SMEs. The paper complements and enriches the empirical literature on the mechanism underlying firm growth. This research uses Statistics Canada's Survey on Financing and Growth of Small and Medium Enterprises, 2011 linked to administrative data. For this report, firm employment growth for the period 20112013 was studied.

The main objective of this study is to determine the factors that may have an impact on a firm's probability of becoming a high-growth firm (HGF). This analysis uses a sample over the period 2003–2012 of Canadian firms from a unique dataset, the National Accounts Longitudinal Microdata File, developed by Statistics Canada.

This research uses a unique set of survey data on Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), linked with administrative tax data, to explore 1) whether the R&D propensity of SMEs increases with exporting and high-growth, and 2) whether the export propensity of SMEs increases with R&D and high-growth.

The report profiles Canadian start-ups by examining owner characteristics, access to financing, exporting, innovation and sales growth. It also compares the distinguishing features between start-ups and non-start-ups. The quantitative analysis is based upon the Statistics Canada's 2014 Survey on Financing and Growth of Small and Medium Enterprises.

This report studies the characteristics and performance of newly established Canadian firms – including new firms birth rates, survival rates and employment levels – at their year of entry into the Canadian economy and for up to ten subsequent years. The study was based on 13 cohorts of new firms – one cohort for each year between 2002 and 2014.

The main purpose of this paper is to present accurate data on the total net employment change for high-growth firms in Canada over the 2009–12 period, in relation to dimensions such as firm age, firm size and industry sector.

This methodological study compares three measures of High-Growth Enterprises (HGEs). Specifically the authors have developed a new definition of HGEs, the Top Decile Approach, and have compared it to two different approaches widely used, the OECD-Eurostat and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Kink Point.

This study examine the relationship between a firm's growth and profitability for the period from 2006 to 2011. Among others, the study shows that human capital is a determining factor as it plays a positive role in a firm achieving superior performance in both growth and profitability.

This report seeks to identify any misalignment between SME actual growth rates and SME sustainable growth rates. Using the "Higgins Sustainable Growth Model," the analysis reveals that, over the 2000–10 period, Canadian SMEs had the financial infrastructure in place and normal earnings capacity to support a rate of growth in sales of approximately 7.3 percent per year without the need to raise additional financing.

This publication examines the distribution of all Canadian firms according to their growth rate (positive or negative) in terms of employment and revenue. An analysis by firm size and industry, as well as employment created and revenue generated by firms is also included. The section on the number of businesses in Canada has been updated.

The profile summarizes the research on growth firms completed by Industry Canada's Small Business Branch and highlights their contribution to job creation, by firm size, region and industry and discusses the factors for successful growth and survival.

This fourth phase of the Growth Firms Project of Industry Canada's Small Business Branch examines job creation and firm turnover at the national level over the 1993-2003 period and compares the results with earlier findings that covered the 1985 to 1999 period.

This project aims to improve our understanding of the dynamics of economic growth using a firm-level longitudinal database to investigate which types of firms provide growth, their contribution to job creation, the barriers to growth and the areas where governments can make a contribution.

Phase II of the Growth Firms project builds on the work done in Phase I by completing additional tabulations. The work in Phase II focussed on employment growth by firm age, the growth of start-ups and firm exits.

The Small Business Branch has completed the first phase of an analysis of growth firms in Canada. The analysis provides answers to questions about which firms grow, who are the engines of growth and what their impact on creating employment has been.