Innovation Policies for SMEs in Norway

There is general agreement that SMEs face problems in innovation which justify public intervention, and this has led to a wide range of SME-oriented actions, both in Norway and other countries. The result has been a complex mix of programmes and policy instruments, so complex in fact that it is difficult to assess what SME policy - even for a small country like Norway - actually is in practice. This paper attempts such an assessment. The paper provides an empirical overview of industrial policy measures in Norway aimed at SMEs, particularly focusing on measures of support for innovation and R&D. The aim is to create an map of the different programmes initiated by public agencies, and try to analyse these programmes with respect to what we know about problems faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (here meaning firms with less than 200 employees) regarding innovation. That is, we try to look at the overall portfolio of SME-related policy in terms of the objectives, functions, target groups and methods of different programmes.