Research Prize in the Innovation and Internationalization of SMEs

Richard Shearmur of McGill University, David Doloreux of the Telfer School of Management and Anika Laperrière (MSc, Telfer School) have won the best paper award in the category of innovation and internationalization of SMEs at the 17th McGill International Entrepreneurship Conference held in Santiago, Chile. Their paper investigates the use of external business services by exporting manufacturing firms, and questions whether this use is connected to their innovation behaviour.  

This is an excellent example of the excellence in our MSc in Management program at the Telfer School and of the quality of supervision offered to our students.  The Research Chair in Canadian Francophonie at the Telfer School, Professor Doloreux is Anika’s doctoral co-supervisor; she is pursuing her PhD at Concordia University. Professor Shearmur is with the School of Urban Planning at McGill.

Research summary

The paper drew on an original survey of 804 manufacturing establishments in Quebec. The researchers analysed the association between different types of innovation (product, process, management, and marketing) and internationalization, and the extent to which the use of these services for internationalization is moderated by the firm’s level or type of innovation.

The study found that exporting establishments use a wider variety of knowledge-intensive business services, or KIBS, and are more innovative than non-exporters, the study found. Although both innovation and KIBS-use are associated with internationalization, only for innovation is the association unambiguous. After controlling for size, sector and age, there is no evidence that exporting manufacturers have more recourse to KIBS than non-exporters; they are, however, more innovative.

Photo: Professor David Doloreux of the Telfer School, Doctoral student Anika Laperrière and Professor Christian Felzensztein of the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile, organizer of the McGill IE Conference.