Measuring public demand and its

impacts on firm innovation in Finland

OECD expert workshop

4 February 2013, Paris

Ville Valovirta

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

2 06/02/2013

Procu-Inno project

Led by VTT Technical Research Centre

Participants: City of Helsinki, City of

Pori, Finnish Transport Agency

Research partners: The University of

Manchester, Lund University, Technical

University of Berlin

Financially supported by Tekes

Project period 2011-2013

3 06/02/2013

Surveys

1. Firm survey

Broad industry coverage

Questionnaire based on the

survey by University of

Manchester 2011

Enables comparative

analysis between Finland &

UK

Focus: Impacts of public

procurement on firm

innovation

2. Survey to public procurement

bodies

Survey to Finnish public bodies

having carried out public

procurements 2007-2011

Focus: Innovation orientation –

Capacity of public procurers to

purchase innovative solutions

4 06/02/2013

PUBLIC

PROCUREMENT

BODIES

SUPPLIER FIRMS

OTHER

BUYERS

Market Innovation policy

DEMAND side

innovation

policy measures

SUPPLY side

innovation

policy measures

Impact of supplier

innovation on public

service improvement

Impact on

development

and diffusion

of innovation

Impact on

market

creation and

market

structure

Impact on

capacity to

purchase

innovative

solutions

Public demand Private demand

Supply

Impact of public

procurement on

market uptake and

private demand

(catalytic effect)

Mapping the impacts

Impact of public

procurement on firm

innovation

5 06/02/2013

Were innovations the result of bidding for or delivering

public sector contracts?

N = 266

6 06/02/2013

Were innovations the result of bidding for or delivering

public sector contracts? By size of responding organisation

193 51 22 Number of responses

N = 266

Size of responding

organization

7 06/02/2013

Catalytic effect of public procurement

Thinking about the innovations that resulted from bidding for or delivering

public sector contracts, have any of these subsequently helped you…?

N = 97

8 06/02/2013

Have procurement practises you have encountered, encouraged,

hindered or had no impact on organisation’s innovation activities?

N = 244-251

(varies

between

responses)

9 06/02/2013

Preliminary findings

Public procurement can have a positive impact on innovation in firms

supplying products and services to the public sector.

Public procurement also has catalytic effects on business for private

customers, other public sector customers, and export markets.

Practices related to public procurement with strongest influence on

firm innovation are early interaction with procuring organization and

advanced communication of future needs.

Three principal measurement issues:

1. Impacts of public procurement on firm innovation

2. Impacts of procured innovations on public service improvement

3. Impacts of innovation policy on public procurement of innovation