SME Inputs on how Future EU Research and Innovation Policy should Support Global Cooperation in Industrial Research
Following the industry workshop (on 17 April 2012, in Brussels) the EG members agreed that the input on behalf of SMEs is important and an additional effort should be undertaken in this regard. Thus, 10 SMEs from the ICT sector from Germany and 14 SMEs from Bulgaria (half of them from the ICT sector and the other half from various industries) were interviewed via e-mail, on the phone and face-to-face. All interviewed companies have well-established international activities. These interviews were organised as a complementary activity to the INCO Expert Group Industry Workshop.
The SMEs were asked the following questions:
1. What are the trends and underlying drivers (both technological and commercial) which push industry to internationalise STI activities?
2. Which factors determining the STI strategy (cooperation, joint venture, investment, acquisition, etc.) and specific geographic targeting?
3. What is the relationship between private investment and public intervention and assistance?
4. How the EU and other public authorities could best support the international STI cooperation activities of companies and how it might be best focussed?
The empirical evidence from Bulgaria and Germany supports the general understanding related to SME internationalisation and innovation:
• The market is leading as a driving force for internationalisation of STI activities, while technological factors appear to be ‘secondary’. The commercial drivers are the most important ones for companies to internationalise their activities - firms seek to fill in market niches and find new markets for new products. An important aspect of the internationalisation is the ‘localisation’ to the market and the local realities. In this regard several companies stress the importance of having local partners and consultancy expertise on-site.
• Location advantages resulting from being embed in clusters is of utmost important for SMEs to generate ideas, avail assistance and gather information on international partners. This suggests that the cluster location helps the SMEs to overcome their lack of experience and resources to some extent in facilitating strategic networking
prospects.
• Access to funding is highly important. SMEs with funding are more able to engage in international STI cooperation. It basically confirms past literature which suggests that
89
SME are usually constricted due to the limited resources available to them to pursue such international collaborations.
• The size of the company is also seen as a factor for going international and for international STI collaboration. Larger companies are the ones working with foreign partners and developing innovations. The small ones need some mediation for finding non-EU partners. This mediation should be sector-specific, facilitating the
communication between potential partners, the exchange of know-how, as well as the access to information.
• The convergence of different technologies is considered an important driver of internationalisation of STI activities of the companies. As various independently developed technologies begin to converge, the companies that produce them begin to work together to bring new and innovative products to the market.
• Public support is often the initial reason for establishing new contacts with
international partners, which in the end can also lead to lasting partnerships, also in the sales domain.
• A lack of adequate public support hinders STI internationalisation due to high risks taken; thus initial public assistance could encourage further private investments. The current mechanisms of public intervention and assistance are too long-term and exhaustive for being a real help in tackling the STI challenges at hand.
• SMEs are mainly engaged in "innovation“ part of the STI collaboration, suggesting a more exploitative strategy and rather limited exploration strategy, which is the
"Science“ and "Technology“ part of STI. The extent and intensity of the STI collaboration however can depend on the market that the SME is serving as well as business the the SME is involved in.
• Since the sample does not allow us to analyse the sector specific influences, we cannot show how certain technology-intensive SMEs find it more important to pursue
Technology-led international cooperation. However, we can confirm that on the whole Science-led international cooperation, where SMEs are engaged in research consortia dealing with new technology, application etc. is mostly absent.
• The interviews seem to confirm the relevance of the opportunities created for SMEs as a result of finding the strategic partner for international cooperation. In certain cases, it is the academic partner for developing new technology, innovation etc, , while for others it is the R&D consortia and FP7 projects which create opportunities for funding, markets etc.
• The dynamic environment for enabling such sharing of information and opportunities regarding international partners is critical for SMEs. Proximity to such sources seems to facilitate this.
90
European Commission
EUR 25508 - Science, Technology and Innovation in Europe - Report of the Expert Group on International STI Cooperation to a EU Strategy for International Cooperation on STI
Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union 2012 — 92 pp — 17,6 x 25 cm
ISBN 978-92-79-26411-5 doi 10.2777/18000
How to obtain EU publications
Free publications:
• via EU Bookshop (http://bookshop.europa.eu);
• at the European Union’s representations or delegations. You can obtain their contact details on the Internet (http://ec.europa.eu) or by sending a fax to +352 2929-42758.
Priced publications:
• via EU Bookshop (http://bookshop.europa.eu).
Priced subscriptions (e.g. annual series of the Official Journal of the European Union and reports of cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union):
• via one of the sales agents of the Publications Office of the European Union (http://publications.europa.eu/others/agents/index_en.htm).
KI-NA-25-508-EN-C
In support of the preparation of the Commission
Communication “Enhancing and focussing EU international cooperation in research and innovation: A Strategic Approach”, a high level expert group was established under the Chairmanship of Dr Sylvia Schwaag Serger.
The Expert Group’s remit was to provide advice and recommendations, including on the international dimension of the European Research Area, to facilitate the development and implementation of a more strategic approach to international STI cooperation.
The Expert Group strongly supported a more strategic orientation and offered key policy recommendations on a broad range of issues including: prioritisation, supporting openness, strengthening framework conditions, encouraging industrial participation, exploiting “variable geometry”, the importance of evidence based policy and greater integration of international cooperation in European activities
Studies and reports
doi: 10.2777/18000