Variable definitions
| Owner characteristics | Variable description |
| Gender of ownership | Categorical variable based on percentage of firm ownership that identifies the gender of ownership of the SME: majority women-owned; majority men-owned; and equally owned by men and women |
| Owner age | Age of the primary owner of the SME, measured in years |
| Immigrant | Whether (= 1) or not (= 0) primary owner had immigrated to Canada |
| Education | Highest level of education attained by the primary owner |
| Growth expectations | Owner’s expectation of annual growth rate for 2014 to 2017. The categorical variable included: negative growth; no growth; 1% to 10%; 11% to 20%; and >20% annual growth rates |
| Firm characteristics | Variable description |
| Firm age | Age in years |
| Firm size | Size was measured by the natural logarithm of the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees |
| Export status | Two alternative measures were employed. One measure defined the SME as an exporter if exports accounted for any sales in 2014. The alternative measure defined the SME as an exporter if exports accounted for more than 25% of total sales |
| Industry sector | Industrial sector in which the SME operates. Four broad sector categories were defined according to North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) classifications: Goods Producers: NAICS 110000 to 399999; Wholesale and Retail: NAICS 410000 to 499999; Professional, Scientific and Technical services: NAICS 540000 to 549999; Other Services: NAICS 510000 to 539999 and 550000 to 919999. This breakdown was used to ensure sufficiently large sample sizes for multivariate analyses (and because certain 1-digit NAICS sectors comprised few SME suppliers) |
| Innovation | Dichotomous variables that take the value of 1 if respondent reported a product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation or organizational innovation within the past 3 years, and value of 0 otherwise |
| Owner characteristics | Variable description |
| Gender of ownership | Categorical variable based on percentage of firm ownership that identifies the gender of ownership of the SME: majority women-owned; majority men-owned; and equally owned by men and women |
| Owner age | Age of the primary owner of the SME, measured in years |
| Immigrant | Whether (= 1) or not (= 0) primary owner had immigrated to Canada |
| Education | Highest level of education attained by the primary owner |
| Growth expectations | Owner’s expectation of annual growth rate for 2014 to 2017. The categorical variable included: negative growth; no growth; 1% to 10%; 11% to 20%; and >20% annual growth rates |
| Firm characteristics | Variable description |
| Firm age | Age in years |
| Firm size | Size was measured by the natural logarithm of the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees |
| Export status | Two alternative measures were employed. One measure defined the SME as an exporter if exports accounted for any sales in 2014. The alternative measure defined the SME as an exporter if exports accounted for more than 25% of total sales |
| Industry sector | Industrial sector in which the SME operates. Four broad sector categories were defined according to North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) classifications: |
| Innovation | Dichotomous variables that take the value of 1 if respondent reported a product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation or organizational innovation within the past 3 years, and value of 0 otherwise |
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