Small business exporters : Profil des petites entreprises exportatrices canadiennes

The indirect benefits of exports are efficient resource allocation, greater capacity utilization, exploitation of economies of scale and stimulation of technological improvement as a result of foreign market competition.2 Small businesses (those with fewer than 100 employees) are an important engine of growth in the domestic economy.3 Given the significant role of exports in the Canadian economy, [...] As a result, it is expected that as the size of the business increases, the annual value of exports of the firm will also increase. [...] The 2001 profile of Canadian exporters shows that the contribution of small exporters (firms that export less than $1 million per year) to the value of total exports is a mere 1.6 percent.12 The assumption has long been that small exporters are small firms, and that small firms, therefore, do not contribute much to the overall value of exports. [...] The principal conclusion of this paper is that the contribution of small businesses to the overall value of exports is much higher than was previously believed. [...] This profile of small business exporters is a more complete analysis than other summary articles that have appeared in the Small Business Quarterly and on the Small Business Research and Policy website.13 The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 examines the number of exporters and the impact of small business exporters compared with small exporters.