Despite strong signs of extensive innovation and usage of sophisticated technologies, the natural resource industries are frequently classified as low technology because of their performance on standard innovation indicators. Drawing upon analysis of the compulsory Survey of Innovation and Business Strategy (SIBS) administered by Statistics Canada, this paper investigates how and why natural resource industries innovate. We show that natural resource firms are leaders in the use of advanced technologies, rely less on intellectual property protection and R&D in favor of quasiintegration with suppliers as a source of innovation that is often fueled by regulatory compliance.

尽管有广泛创新和使用先进技术的强烈迹象，自然资源行业由于在标准创新指标上的表现而经常被归类为低技术。在对加拿大统计局进行的强​​制性创新与商业策略调查（SIBS）的分析基础上，本文研究了自然资源行业如何以及为何进行创新。我们表明，自然资源公司在先进技术的使用方面处于领先地位，较少依赖知识产权保护和研发，而倾向于与供应商的准集成作为创新的源泉，而创新通常由法规遵从性推动。