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

Abstract

Government invests a significant amount of effort into supporting innovation in the South African business sector. This support can either be financial in nature or through support programmes that make access to other resources easier. 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 manufacturing 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.