Defining the francophone marketplace of Canadian businesses and entrepreneurs: examining new ways of thinking

Marc DuhamelCanadian Institute for Research on

Public Policy and Public Administration

November 1, 2012

What is the francophone marketplace of Canadian businesses and entrepreneurs?

What is a business and an entrepreneur? Creating value added through the coordination, control and delegation of

decisions and activities

Where does language interacts with the activities of a business or entrepreneur? People, Architecture, Process, and Culture

Can we assess this francophone marketplace? What is the value of economic transactions and exchanges of this

francophone marketplace?

What is « Doing Business » in French?• The contribution of language to the value

added of economic exchange and business transactions is important• 75 % of respondents to the pre-Forum survey

view the usage of French as a necessary criterion

• External transactions• Clients• Suppliers• Investors (ex. institutions financières)• Business partners, strategic alliances, networks

• Internal transactions• Gouvernance (ex. Corporate Board) • Owners, shareholders, members• Management, Directors• Employees• Doing business in French means more than

the contribution of workers whose mother tongue is French

The framework

Francophone marketplace varies at the enterprise-level• Three randomly selected majority

owners of businesses describe their francophone marketplace• Entreprise A (MB)

• 10-19 employees• Professionnal services

• Entreprise B (QC)• 1 employee• Business management

• Entreprise C (ON)• 1 employee• Manufacturing

Francophone marketplace, 2012

Source: Pre-Forum Survey

How many businesses contribute to the development of the francophone marketplace?• Every business and entrepreneur can contribute to the development of the francophone marketplace when

they use French in their economic transactions or exchanges. • Data limitation (e.g. Statistics Canada) prevent a complete and accurate response to this question

• Data on workers (employees and managers) are frequently used (e.g. Vaillancourt, 1996 and CBoC, 2012 among others)• Mother tongue is the most frequently used criterion, not the most appropriate for a business or entrepreneur

• Complementary sources of data• Census: language regularly used at work for workers• Survey on Financing (and Growth) of Small and Medium Enterprises (1999-2011) provides information on the mother tongue of

business owners• Worplace and Employee Survey (1999-2006) provides information on the mother tongue and language regularly used at work

of workers • Le Conseil canadien de la coopération et de la mutualité provides data on partnerships of francophone cooperatives • To our knowledge, there is no available administrative database or survey that provides information on francophone

marketplace of social enterprises

How many business units have a francophone majority-owner ?

Source: ICRPAP, 2012

Enterprises of francophone majority-owner are less numerous proportionally than the respective weight of workers or the population in general

Source: ICRPAP, 2012

The criterion of the language used in a business has important regional implications

Source: ICRPAP, 2012

New Ways of Thinking about the Francophone Marketplace of Enterprises

• Available data prevent a complete and coherent picture of the francophone marketplace for business• Which factors are more important for the development of the francophone

marketplace (e.g. ownership vs. management, customers vs. investors)?

• Real opportunities exist to enhance our understanding • The collection and analysis of administrative datasets, in addition to the analysis

of survey data, could foster a richer and more coherent understanding of the factors that promote the development of the francophone marketplace in every community (e.g. cooperatives, social and commercial entreprises)