The effect of changing technology use on plant performance in the Canadian manufacturing sector

That is, the environment faced by a plant and the history of that plant dictate the patterns of technological adoption and the success of the plant. [...] To study the effect of the use of advanced technologies, these studies have used the formulation: 1) ∆PERFt-τ,t = f(Techt , Xt) where ∆PERFt-τ,t is the change in a plant’s performance over the period t-τ to t and Techt is a measure of advanced technology use at the end of the period in year t, and Xt is a set of plant characteristics at time t. Since advanced technology use at the end of the perio [...] Over the four-year period studied here, there was substantial change in relative status.6 A quarter or more of the plants that started the period in one of the middle two quartiles, had moved out of that quartile by the end of the period.7 There is greater inertia for the plants that started in the bottom or top quartile, primarily because their movement possibilities are truncated, either in an u [...] Relative productivity of a plant is the productivity of that plant divided by the weighted average productivity of all plants in the industry. [...] These results show that the relative growth rates in the late 1990s correspond closely to the relative performance or success of the different technologies in the 1980s.