Is a policy mix more effective than individual policies for SME innovation? An exploratory analysis

The provision of public funds to private firms for the purchase of services, particularly knowledge-intensive ones, has received so far little attention from the evaluation literature (Bakhshi et al., 2015; Bruhn et al., 2018 are notable exceptions). These interventions often target small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), providing them with a small amount of public funds that reduce their cost of purchasing services (Storey, 2003). Public funding can take the form of a direct subsidy or a voucher, which firms must use to purchase services from accredited service providers, or sometimes from any provider freely chosen by the beneficiary firm (OECD, 2000; Storey, 2003; IEG, 2013)