Jérôme Doutriaux

Strategic decisions and innovation in construction firms

Current research on the process of innovation has focused attention on the crucial role of the business firm as the place where new ideas are developed and then implemented in the marketplace. Based on current knowledge, a model was developed which attempts to replicate the strategic decision‐making process in a construction firm. It links perceived business environment variables to various business strategy variables (i.e. marketing, human resources and technology). These two sets of variables are linked to the innovativeness of the firm, measured by the number of advanced technologies and/or business practices currently used. Innovativeness is subsequently linked to outcomes (i.e. profitability, competitive advantage) to assess overall effectiveness. The model was tested empirically, using data from the Survey on Innovation, Advanced Technologies and Practices in the Construction and Related Industries carried out by Statistics Canada in 1999 with 1739 usable responses. The results generally support the proposed model; certain perceived business environment and business strategy variables are significantly related to firm innovativeness, however the link between innovativeness and outcomes requires further confirmation. Many construction firms introduce new approaches in information and construction technologies as well as in business practices. A large number of these were found to provide significant competitive advantage. In general, innovative behaviour varies with the size of the firm.

Emerging high-tech firms: How durable are their comparative start-up advantages?

Abstract Successful high-tech entrepreneurial firms have been shown to have several common founder characteristics and start-up conditions. This paper presents a study of the duration of the effect of these characteristics and conditions on a firms early growth: do they have a permanent effect or does the early comparative advantage that they confer to the firm fade away after a few years, successful firms being better able to adapt to changing conditions than the others? The study is based on the longitudinal analysis of the first 8 years of operations of 73 high-tech firms located in various parts of Canada, founded between 1965 and 1980, by one or several entrepreneurs in microelectronics, communications, and related fields. The sample includes only “survivors” and “manufacturers,” all the firms being still active and doing some manufacturing at data collection time. In terms of firm size, start-up capital, and sources of financing, this sample is comparable to other samples of high-tech start-ups described in the literature and can therefore be assumed to be representative of the industry. The importance of the government sector in Canada resulted in a very high “government orientation” of the firms at start-up (an average 32% of first year sales being to the public sector); similar market and firm behaviors may develop in other industrial economies, some having very important government sectors (e.g., France, Italy), or high-tech markets indirectly driven by governments (through major defense and space contractors in the United States). The analysis confirms the positive short- and medium-term impact of such start-up characteristics as initial size; start-up capital; past experience in marketing, finance, and government contracting; founders age; market structure; and similarity with the market served by a previous employer. However, except for initial size (sales), initial government orientation (percentage sales to the public sector, year I), and previous experience in government contracting, which tend to be excellent predictors of medium-to long-term “success” (measured in terms of sales level), other start-up characteristics show only short-term direct effects: 3 years for past experience in marketing and finance, 1 to 2 years for market structure and similarity of the market served with that of a previous employer. They are, however, indirectly related to success through their effect on initial size and government orientation. Past experience in government contracting is strongly linked with initial government orientation whereas initial size and initial government orientation are independent of each other. Initial size and initial government orientation are therefore two independent start-up traits that show the longest global direct effect on sales level (8 years, the time horizon of this study). When regrouping firms by initial size and government orientation, other “long-term” (at least 8 years) effects appear: for all the firms, size of the previous employer and similarity of technology with that of a previous employer; for smaller start-ups, similarity of their market with that of a previous employer; for government-oriented firms, amount of start-up capital, past government employment, past experience in RD and for non-government-oriented firms, past government employment and past R&D experience. From a practical point of view, these results illustrate the importance of start-up conditions: behaviors and strategies can evolve as a firm matures, but some initial characteristics seem to be clearly associated with sustained comparative advantage, either because they lead to larger initial size or good government contracts, or because they impact on the general orientation and strategy of the firm. Considering these start-up conditions is therefore useful to the entrepreneur when planning a start-up, to the venture capitalist when analyzing a start-up, and to the public sector planner when developing support policies.

Business success factors and innovation in Canadian service sectors: an initial investigation of inter-sectoral differences

This paper explores the relationship between innovation and a select number of business success factors in 3701 firms across 34 Canadian service sectors. The paper begins with an investigation of the differences in rates of innovation by Canadian service sectors. The paper then progresses to investigate similarities/differences between service industries with respect to the identified business success factors. Distinct clusters of industries are observed to exist as they relate to their market and knowledge development orientations. Analysis at the individual sector level yields further insights into the orientation of individual industries as it pertains to innovation.

Building Knowledge Regions in North America

Focusing on emerging technology regions of the US, Canada and Mexico, the authors provide an analysis of firms’ innovative milieus in three contexts: national systems of innovation, knowledge regions and incubation mechanisms. An overview of the evolution of each region over the past quarter century is presented, along with an evaluation of the effectiveness of science parks and technology incubators in various regional and national environments.

Sourcing Knowledge and Innovation in a Low-Technology Industry

This paper investigates the relationship between knowledge sourcing and innovation in a select low- to medium-technology industry, the forest sector. It is based on data from the Statistics Canada Survey of Innovation 2005. Econometric models are developed and tested, specifically logistic regression analyses, in order to probe the relationship between select forms of embodied and disembodied knowledge and levels of innovation intensity. Differences between single establishment Canadian firms, multi-establishment Canadian firms, Canada–USA multi-establishment firms and establishments belonging to multinational firms are studied in terms of the relationship between innovation and sources of knowledge. Findings indicate that establishment innovative performance is related to knowledge sourcing strategies and furthermore that organization ownership/structure impacts significantly upon this relationship.

Firm Demographics in Silicon Valley North

The Ottawa-Gatineau Commercialization Task Force (CTF)was created to address issues of firm size among technology firms in SiliconValley North (SVN).To aid the CTF, teams from the business schools atCarleton University and the University of Ottawa collected research (1) toobserve the distribution of firms of various sizes in the region, and (2) tocompare SVN to other comparable technology clusters in the world.Focusingon five technological clusters (telecommunications, photonics,microelectronics, software and life sciences), the researchers utilized datacollected by the Ottawa Center for Research and Innovation (OCRI). The five clusters are described, as are the limitations of the OCRIdata.A history of SVN provides a thorough description of the evolution ofthis Canadian technology cluster, with its success attributed to its researchbase and the presence of a large private sector firm.The prevalence ofthe five technological clusters is also examined.SVNs firms are comparedin terms of size and distribution to high-tech firms in Silicon Valley,California, and Oxfordshire, England. The conclusions of the research were twofold:(1) when compared toSilicon Valley and Oxfordshire, Silicon Valley Northhas proportionatelyfewer small high-tech firms and more medium and large firms, and (2) incomparison to large California firms, Canadian high-tech firms have a tendencyto be small. (AKP)

Secteur informel: les difficultés de l'approche et de l'intervention dans les pays en développement

ABSTRACT The heterogeneity of the socio-politico-economic environment of developing economies makes it difficult to analyze their informal sector and to design successful aid programs. This article...

EFFECT OF INITIAL MARKETING AND R&D ORIENTATIONS ON HIGH-TECH ENTREPRENEURIAL START-UPS

ABSTRACT Past studies have shown that joint R&D and marketing strategies contribute to the success of established high-tech firms. This study analyses the initial marketing and R&D orientations of emerging Canadian high-tech entrepreneurial firms and focuses on their complementarity and effect on early growth. It is based on the analysis of the behaviour of 68 Canadian high-tech entrepreneurial firms of the microelectronics and communications sectors. General information on their operations was first obtained in 1985/86. Data collection was subsequently updated in 1988 to provide a better insight into specific marketing activities. The data suggest that marketing orientation and R&D orientation are two independent start-up attributes which, globally, lead to similar rates of growth and that firms with these attributes have many characteristics in common. Combinations of these start-up attributes, however, seems to lead to different rates of growth and characteristics, large start-ups with both initial mar...

An Evolutionary Approach to Process Control with Application to Lithography

A new approach to process control is presented. Complete automation is, from the outset, considered undesirable. Instead, an evolutionary approach is proposed, and the successive stages of growth of the control system are described, from a totally human-controlled process to a greater degree of automation. A man?machine control of a lithography printing press is presented. Instead of proposing a new kind of automatic controller intended for eliminating the human operator, cooperation between the pressman and the computer control system is advocated in order to use their complementary characteristics. An application of the approach on a computer-based model of a press and a discussion of the results obtained by experienced pressmen are given.

Comptes Rendus / Book Reviews

Historians usually concentrate on origins rather than later developments, as any reader of biographies of Martin Luther will soon discover: emphasis is on the young Luther and his later years are neglected. But the present study of the Reformation in Strasbourg breaks with historiographical tradition and deals with the citys Reformation over the long haul, stretching from the reform agitation in the opening decades of the sixteenth century, through the triumph of the evangelical cause in the 1520s, down to the definitive (but not total) victory of Lutheran orthodoxy with the passage of the Church Ordinance of 1598. Indeed, the book gives rather short shrift to the much-studied heroic age of Zell, Bucer, Capito, and Hedio, when Strasbourg made its decisive move into the Protestant camp. The reason is that the author focuses attention on the effect of the Reformation on the whole society and only secondarily on the great theological issues that dominated the 1520s. This is, in fact, a social history of the Strasbourg Reformation. The evangelical conquest of the city in the 1520s has been described many times. But the long-term developments and the effect of the Refonnation on the life of the people have been less fully studied: and one of the important achievements of this book to its success in carrying the story all the way to 1598.