Survey of Innovation and Business Strategy (SIBS)
Detailed information for January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2025
Status:
Active
Frequency:
Every 2 years
Record number:
5171
The Survey of Innovation and Business Strategy collects information on the strategic decisions, innovation activities, operational tactics and global value chain activities of businesses in Canada.
Description
The Survey of Innovation and Business Strategy (SIBS) is a cross-economy survey of business enterprises and industrial non-profit organizations in Canada.
The concepts and definitions employed in the collection and dissemination of innovation data are provided in the Oslo Manual: Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Innovation Data, 4th Edition (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, [OECD and Eurostat, 2018]). According to the manual:
"An innovation is a new or improved product or process (or combination thereof) that differs significantly from the unit's previous products or processes and that has been made available to potential users (product) or brought into use by the unit (process)."
The SIBS collects complementary qualitative business information, including market characteristics, use of advanced technologies, business strategy, business practices and participation in global value chains. The survey also collects quantitative information on total sales, innovation expenditures, purchase of goods and services and personnel, supplemented by percentage distributions by specified subgroups.
Reference period: The survey reference year is 2025. Information is also collected for three calendar years (2023-2025).
Collection period: January through March of the year following the reference period.
Subjects
- Business performance and ownership
- Innovation
- Science and technology
Data sources and methodology
Target population
The target population for the Survey of Innovation and Business Strategy is limited to enterprises within the following 14 sectors defined according to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS, Statistics Canada, 2022):
- Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (11)
- Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (21)
- Utilities (22)
- Construction (23)
- Manufacturing (31-33)
- Wholesale trade (41)
- Retail trade (44-45)
- Transportation and warehousing (48-49)
- Information and cultural industries (51)
- Finance and insurance (52) excluding 521 (Monetary authorities-central bank) and 523910 (special purpose entities)
- Real estate and rental and leasing (53)
- Professional, scientific and technical services (54)
- Management of companies and enterprises (55) excluding 551113 (Holding companies)
- Administrative and support, waste management and remediation services (56)
To reduce response burden on small businesses, only enterprises with at least 20 employees and revenues of at least $250,000 were considered for sample selection.
Instrument design
The SIBS uses an electronic questionnaire (EQ). The questionnaire was developed to conform to international standards for innovation concepts (OECD and Eurostat, 2018). EQs are the principal mode of collection, and these were tested with enterprise respondents in English and French to confirm respondents' understanding of terminology, concepts and definitions, as well as their ability to provide the requested data and to navigate the EQ applications. This round of testing concentrated on validating respondents' understanding of concepts, questions, terminology, the appropriateness of response categories and the availability of requested information.
Sampling
This is a sample survey with a cross-sectional design.
The target population was stratified by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Canada 2022, region and three size classes based on number of employees per enterprise.
The survey design required a census of all large enterprises within the 14 sectors. The sample was randomly selected to meet two sets of objectives:
1) Produce estimates of proportions for defined characteristics for Canada and for selected provinces or regions with a target standard error (quality measure) to satisfy the requirements for estimates crossed by employment size and industry, and by geography and industry. The sample was not designed to produce estimates crossed by all three dimensions of employment size, geography, and industry.
2) Permit microdata analysis within a linked file environment.
Sampling unit:
Enterprise
Stratification method:
The national stratification corresponds to enterprises with at least $250,000 in revenues within the target industrial groupings and the enterprise size (based on the number of employees):
- Small enterprises (20 to 99)
- Medium-sized enterprises (100 to 249)
- Large enterprises (250 or more)
The regional stratification corresponds to enterprises with at least $250,000 in revenues within the target industrial groupings for the following regions: The Atlantic region, Quebec, Ontario and the Rest of Canada. Provinces/regions not listed were not individually sampled.
Sampling and sub-sampling:
The sample size for the survey is 12,988 enterprises; they were selected from the target population of 76,150 enterprises, with an expected response rate of 50% by stratum. The target standard errors (S.E.) for the calculation of proportions are defined as follows:
- 7.2% for NAICS2 (11,22,23,44-45,49,53,55,56) by size
- 5.0% for NAICS2 (21,31-33,41,48,51,52,54) by size
- 9.1% for NAICS3 by size
- 10.0% for NAICS4 by size
- 12.0% for NAICS5 by size
- 12.0% for NAICS6 by size
- 9.0% for Atlantic, Quebec and Ontario
- 12.0% for the rest of Canada
Data sources
Data collection for this reference period: 2026-01-05 to 2026-03-31
Responding to this survey is mandatory.
Data are collected directly from survey respondents.
Responding to this survey is mandatory, except to the question on the demographic characteristics of the main decision maker which is voluntary.
Data are collected directly from survey respondents.
The data were collected through an electronic questionnaire (EQ), with non-response follow-up and failed edit follow-up for priority questions.
Questions 1, 17, 21, 24, 27, 28, 31, 40, 47,53 and 66 are mandatory.
Administrative data (T2, PD7 and Exporter data) will be used for data validation and to assist with imputation only.
View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .
- Date modified: