IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v20y1988i7p953-971.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Industrial Innovation in the Small Business Sector: Empirical Evidence from Metropolitan Toronto

Author

Listed:
  • A MacPherson

    (Department of Geography, University of Toronto, Toronto M5S 1A1, Canada)

Abstract

In this paper, the author examines some of the key technical relations which exist between small industrial firms and knowledge-intensive units in the producer services. Particular attention is focussed on patterns of task-specific subcontracting in which small manufacturers delegate specialised technical functions to external consultants. Data from a sample of small firms in a variety of Toronto industries are used to illustrate the scale, nature, and effects of current linkage arrangements. A major finding of the empirical work is that those firms who have strong backward links to the producer services exhibit above average performance with respect to export intensity and product innovation. The paper is concluded by a discussion of some of the main questions of research raised by the growth of service-to-manufacturing linkages in large metropolitan areas.

Suggested Citation

  • A MacPherson, 1988. "Industrial Innovation in the Small Business Sector: Empirical Evidence from Metropolitan Toronto," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 20(7), pages 953-971, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:20:y:1988:i:7:p:953-971
    DOI: 10.1068/a200953
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a200953
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a200953?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:20:y:1988:i:7:p:953-971. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.