jULY/AUGUST 2018 BCBusiness 63 BCBUSINESS.CA
and T&T Supermarkets
were acquired, resource
players kept proliferating, driven by
demand for commodities.
"The resource sector is quite pro-
cyclical—it does particularly well when
the economy is expanding and quite
poorly when the economy is contracting,"
explains Jim Brander, Asia Paci-c profes-
sor in international business and public
policy at
UBC's Sauder School of Business.
Also, the capital-intensive nature of
mining, forestry and power generation
and distribution means that the com-
panies engaged in these activities need
to be big.
"California is not a resource economy,
but [power utility] Southern California
Edison is one of the largest companies in
California," Brander says. "So in B.C., it's
kind of a double e‡ect: a) in B.C. the natu-
ral resource sector is very important, and
it is the major source of our exports, and
b) the natural resource sector has sub-
stantial economies of scale, so it's natural
for companies to get big."
The result: newcomers are more likely
to be the kinds of companies that eventu-
ally win a spot on the list, whereas success-
ful startups in other sectors get acquired.
The ongoing prominence of resource
and distribution companies isn't neces-
sarily a bad thing, either. It underscores
the stable character of a provincial econ-
omy that keeps building on its strengths.
"It's been a strong economy across
all sectors. We've had strong provincial
growth, and I think the BCBusiness Top
100 list re'ects that," says Walter Pela,
continued from page 55
THE ONGOING PROmINENCE
Of RESOURCE AND
DISTRIBUTION COmPANIES
ISN'T NECESSARILY A BAD
THING, EITHER. IT UNDER-
SCORES THE STABLE
CHARACTER Of A PROVINCIAL
ECONOmY THAT KEEPS
BUILDING ON ITS STRENGTHS
