Can government stimulate innovation through public funding and procurement?: what South African services firms say

Abstract

Government invests a significant amount of public funding to promote, incentivise and support innovation in South African firms. Support mechanisms include initiatives such as the R&D Tax Incentive, Industry Innovation Partnership, Support Programme for Industrial Innovation, and Technology Stations. Given the right support from government, we should expect business to be better positioned to take their innovations further. This Research Brief uses data from the Business Innovation Survey 2010-2012 to provide evidence of services sector firms' awareness* of the array of public funding on offer for innovation. We report on the extent to which firms access this funding, if they benefit in other ways, and detail the reasons why they do not access public funding.