Innovation and Export-market Participation in Canadian Manufacturing

This paper asks whether research and development (R&D) drives the level of competitiveness required to successfully enter export markets and whether, in turn, participation in export markets increases R&D expenditures. Canadian non-exporters that subsequently entered export markets in the first decade of the 2000s are found to be not only larger and more productive, as has been reported for previous decades, but also more likely to have invested in R&D. Both extramural R&D expenditures (purchased from domestic and foreign suppliers) and intramural R&D expenditures (performed in-house) increase the ability of firms to penetrate export markets. Exporting also has a significant impact on subsequent R&D expenditures; exporters are more likely to start investing in R&D. Firms that began exporting increased the intensity of extramural R&D expenditures in the year in which exporting occurred.