Amélie Bernier

Digital Competence: A Multi-dimensional Conceptualization and a Typology in an SME Context

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to rely on information and communication technologies (ICT) to survive in the digital economy. Although the literature emphasizes the link between individual digital competence (DC) and ICT use and adoption, there is a lack of understanding of how DC can be conceptualized in an SME context. Drawing on the existing literatures on SMEs and DC and on the change a gentry perspective, this exploratory study proposes a multi-dimensional conceptualization of DC and advances a typology of three DC archetypes of SME employees: Technical Expert, Organizer, and Campaigner. We provide results from a multi-case study of three Canadian SMEs suggesting that the development of DC should take into consideration the complementarity nature of the technological, social and cognitive aspects of the DC in order to successfully implement new technologies in SMEs.

The Impact of Training on Productivity in Canadian Firms

This paper estimates the effects of training expenditures on productivity in Canada. The data used are taken from the Statistics Canada Workplace and Employee Survey (WES) for the 1999-2005 period. Among all of the works consulted dealing with the possible impact of training on productivity, more and more treat the longitudinal character of the data, but few consider the delayed effects of the training. Also, the results on this subject differ widely. The longitudinal nature of the WES allows us to address issues of the endogeneity of inputs including human capital and unobserved heterogeneity of establishments as well as omitted variable bias. The impact of training on productivity is measured by estimating a Cobb-Douglas production function within a distributed lag estimation framework. We exploit the advantages of the longitudinal data by estimating a model that considers the impact of training expenditures on productivity, by adding them to the investments in physical capital. The interaction between investments in training and physical capital makes it possible to test the assumption that investments in physical capital and human capital are complementary and mutually supportive. Our results show that investments in training have positive effects on productivity which are spread out over a three-year period.