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Sara Torregrosa Hetland . Photo

Sara Torregrosa Hetland

Senior lecturer

Sara Torregrosa Hetland . Photo

The prevalence of publicly stimulated innovations – A comparison of Finland and Sweden, 1970–2013

Author

  • Sara Torregrosa-Hetland
  • Antti Pelkonen
  • Juha Oksanen
  • Astrid Kander

Summary, in English

While the role played by the state in stimulating innovation in the private sector has been a prevalent interest in innovation research, studies analysing the impacts of public interventions have usually focused on individual policies, programs or projects. Public stimulation is hence often studied from a relatively restricted and temporarily confined perspective, leaving a macro-level and longer-term perspective unrecognized. This article provides further evidence on the matter by examining how many innovations in Finland and Sweden have been publicly stimulated through funding or research collaboration, over a period of more than four decades (1970–2013). Our main source is a new innovation database constructed following the Literature Based Innovation Output (LBIO) method, which gathers the most significant innovations of both countries for the study period, totalling approximately 4100 Swedish and 2600 Finnish innovations. Our results indicate that the public sector has played a very prominent role in stimulating private innovation in both countries, and with an increasing trend. This is especially true for Finland, where 35–55% of the innovations of the period have been stimulated by public funding and 25–65% by collaboration with public research. In Sweden, the share of publicly stimulated innovations has been somewhat lower and erratic, but has increased over time.

Department/s

  • Department of Economic History

Publishing year

2019-07

Language

English

Publication/Series

Research Policy

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Economic History

Keywords

  • Public policy
  • Innovation
  • Innovation policy
  • Literature based innovation output (LBIO) method

Status

Published

Project

  • Diverging innovation trends in Finland and Sweden 1970-2013
  • SWINNO 2.0. A data base of Swedish innovations in a historical perspective

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0048-7333