[Study] The Québec Entrepreneurship Index 2016

The Québec entrepreneur: four profiles highlighted

Tuesday November 1, 2016

The Fondation de l’entrepreneurship’s Réseau M  is proud to release the results of the Quebec Entrepreneurship Index (QEI) 2016. The index is presented by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and produced in partnership with the National Bank | HEC Montréal Institute for Entrepreneurship (NBIE) and Leger. The 2016 edition identifies four key entrepreneurship profiles among Quebecers. The index is being launched today in Montréal as part of the Rendez-vous Réseau M 2016, in which 600 business managers and stakeholders will take part.

A panel, moderated by René Vézina, a columnist (Les Affaires, CBC) will react to the Index’s key findings. The panel will include two entrepreneurs - Elizabeth Stefanka (Stefanka) and Louis Têtu (Coveo) - as well as the team that produced the Index (Rina Marchand from Réseau M and Luis Cisneros (NBIE)).

The 2016 Index shows that entrepreneurial intentions among Quebecers have tripled (to 21.0%) from when it was first published in 2009. "This high rate is likely related to numerous efforts made to support a strong entrepreneurial culture in Québec,” says Michèle Boisvert, Executive Vice-President, Business Outreach at Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. “Entrepreneurship promotion initiatives are paying off. Today an entrepreneurship career is not only regarded as legitimate, it has become an optimal choice, especially among young people."

Four key Québec entrepreneur profiles

The Index  was compiled to provide key information in order to accompany Québec entrepreneurs with  their business growth. It can be seen as one of the biggest "market research" efforts of its kind. This included a survey, by Leger, of 2,515 respondents, including 800 Québec business owners and more than 1,000 young people. Two key factors facilitated initial classification: whether the entrepreneur’s business was active internationally and if it had employees. Entrepreneur typologies emerged from analysis of fifteen key indicators. Six of these indicators were reflected in the core DNA of the four major entrepreneur profiles identified (see Table 1).

"Quebec entrepreneurs are vital to our economy. Most play specific and essential roles in our local and regional development fabrics. Others have the potential to create an important leverage effect in Québec’s economy and for our presence on the world stage. How can we support entrepreneurs unless we first get to know them better? That is exactly what the Index 2016 helps accomplish," said Rina Marchand, Senior Director, Content Development and Innovation at Réseau M – Fondation de l’entrepreneurship.

Table 1 – The four profiles of Québec entrepreneurs and their six key indicators – Quebec (November 2016)
* This is a Z-score, with 0 being the population average. Values ​​above 0 are above average for the population.

Individualist entrepreneurs account for almost half of Index respondents. Their primary goal is to create their own jobs by leveraging a highly targeted niche. Established entrepreneurs account for more than a third of the total. Their businesses often have regional scale and are thus significant employment generators. Entrepreneurs in these two groups are less likely to have completed university studies than those in the other two profiles. By comparison, Prudent entrepreneurs are more often found to have a university degree. However, they form a relatively small proportion of the entrepreneurial pool. A low propensity to take risks and willingness to hire constitute major obstacles for those in this group. Leader entrepreneurs stand out due to their high levels of education, intention to go international from the inception of their business model, willingness to hire and innovate, and propensity to take risks. Men form the largest proportion in the Leader group, while women, are best represented in Individualist category, in which they account for nearly half the total.

"The knowledge, experience and contacts that universities make available, can provide entrepreneurs with a short-cut to the usual business internationalization cycle and often lead to entrepreneurs taking their first steps abroad while they are developing their business models. We can definitely do more to promote entrepreneurship in higher education, but we also need to promote entrepreneurs who are “born global,”" said Luis Cisneros, Director of the National Bank | HEC Montréal Institute for Entrepreneurship.
 

An entrepreneurial chain supported by youth and immigrants

Entrepreneurial chain indicators have been relatively stable since 2015. The slight increase in entrepreneurial intentions noted, stemmed in large part from youth aged 18 to 34 years (a group in which intentions increased from 36.6% in 2015 to 42.2% in 2016). Immigrants, not surprisingly, continue to form a high proportion of entrepreneurs, including 22.4% of Leaders, an impressive total relative to their overall 11.2% weight in the adult population of the Indice respondents. Further efforts clearly need to made to support this "naturally entrepreneurial" group.

Women retain only a modest presence in the entrepreneurial chain. Particularly surprising is the fact that there are so few Québec women in the Leader profile (22.9%), which is dominated by those with higher educations. The fact that there are far more Québec women in college than men would lead one to expect more women “Leaders.”  The shortfall is in part due to a lower propensity among women to take risks. That said, strong support for this group is crucial, as women form a large “reserve” which represents the future of entrepreneurship in Québec.

Québec entrepreneurial chain 2016