Introduction
The Entrepreneurship Research Alliance (ERA) is a Major Collaborative Research Initiative (MCRI) based at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, British Columbia and funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)under grant no. 412 98 0025. An important part of the ERA research activity involves a close partnership with Statistics Canada (Stats Can) regarding the development and use of relevant databases. In addition the ERA is also undertaking significant data collection using its own surveys.
Research Overview
The objective of the Entrepreneurship Research Alliance (ERA) is to understand why some firms grow while others stagnate or go out of business. Earlier results have shown that, in Canada, only one firm out of five that enters the economy still exists ten years after start-up. New firms thus do not generate many long-lasting jobs. We have also determined that significant firm growth is the exception rather than the norm, even among survivors. Only two firms in ten thousand start-ups in Canada grow to have 100 or more employees. A thorough understanding of the processes by which ventures grow is critical if firm growth is to be fostered as an important source of economic development. However, we currently know very little about why some firms grow while others do not. The research being undertaken in the ERA is designed to investigate the evolution of Canadian entrepreneurial firms so as to gain a better understanding of the factors that influence entrepreneurial performance.
The ERA is a multi-disciplinary and multi-university research project coordinated from the W. Maurice Young Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Research Centre in the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia (UBC). In addition, the ERA is affiliated with researchers at a number of Canadian universities including Brock University, Carleton University, HEC, Laval University, St. Francis Xavier University, St. Mary's University, the Université de Montréal, the Université de Québec á Trois Riviéres, the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Toronto.
The ERA is organized around five research arenas:
1. Financing and Competitiveness Issues in Firm Growth
2. The Firm Growth in the SME Sector
3. The Mechanisms for Firm Growth
4. Ethnic Entrepreneurs
5. Survey of Nascent and Growing Enterprises
The ERA seeks to contribute to academic research, to business decision-making, and to government policy, thereby strengthening the link between theory and practice.