SUB-THEME: S6.1 Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) Development PUBLIC PROGRAMME CONTEXTS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON ENTERPRISE INNOVATION: THE CASE OF UNIVERSITY OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

Introduction The assistance to enterprise innovation is a priority in the agenda of many governments. However, some studies have questioned this type of government support (e.g. Martin and Matlay 2001 and Mole 2002). One typical way to materialise this assistance is via public-funded programmes implemented by universities (specialised units), which should interact with other programmes and private providers in order to fulfil all the needs of enterprises. This research found serious problems in 6 public programme interventions that assisted small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in their ebusiness innovation activities, which is drastically different than the results of the formal auditing and evaluations carried out by the policy administrators (the Regional Development Agency and a University Association). The aim of the research is to illustrate the e-business innovation processes of the SMEs and the public assistance that they received, as well as to explain the influence of the programme contexts on the outreach activities of universities in terms of worker goals and organisational performance. State of the Art about the Topic Two core concepts used in this work are the innovation process (a series of stages that enterprises pass through in order to innovate: agenda-setting, matching, redefining, restructuring, clarifying, routinizing and infusion) and the assistance process (a series of stages that public programmes pass through in order to assist enterprise innovation: selection, design, delivery, connection and follow-up). The innovation process is part of the diffusion of innovations (DOI) theory of Rogers (2003) and the assistance process is our invention. We also used the street-level bureaucracy (SLB) theory of Lipsky (1980) to help to understand the programme contexts in which public services are implemented. In the most part, the research based on the DOI has focused on determining covariance and correlations amongst variables, and not on understanding the time order of events and the rational of human behaviour in innovation processes (e.g. Fichman 2004 and Jeyaraj et al. 2006). With regard to the SLB, Johnson (2005) pointed out that the SLB has not been used explicitly in the study of SME policies. To my knowledge, it is the first time that the DOI and the SLB are combined to study the interactive phenomena of enterprise innovation and public assistance. Research Focus and Methodology We developed 6 case studies in order to illustrate the e-business innovation processes of the SMEs, the public assistance that they received by the University as well as the context that influenced the decisions and actions of programme workers. After that, we used an inductive approach with the data of all the cases, in order to formulate more concrete models that explain SME innovation processes, SME needs, programme contexts, programme worker goals, programme organisation performance and other relevant issues. Findings After the analysis, we defined a classification of 5 types of innovation contexts (simple, lowcomplexity, medium-complexity, complex and high-complexity), which explains the extent that innovation processes are under the control of SMEs as well as the external support that could be required. In addition, we designed a classification of 4 types of programme contexts (chaotic, misleading, optimum and unsustainable), which explains the choice of goals of programme workers (programme, social or SME goals) during the assistance processes as well as the potential performance of programmes in terms of the quality of their services and outputs. After this, we use both, the innovation context and programme context classifications to illustrate in detail the potential behaviour of programme workers at each stage of the assistance processes. Contributions and Implications This research gives relevant theoretical contributions to the triple helix innovation model. We developed the assistance process concept, the classification of innovation contexts, the classification of programme contexts as well as the model to explain programme worker behaviour in the assistance processes. In addition, we demonstrated why the most negative and undesired type of programme context, i.e. chaotic, is probably the most common context in which programme workers operate. Finally, we reflect on the limited capabilities that programme organisation managers and universities have in order to correct and develop contexts that improve and direct programme activities towards social goals. This responsibility relies more on policy-makers at different levels of government (i.e. European Union Directorates-General, central government Departments and regional partnerships). We recommend a more systemic and institutional analytical approach to understand and intervene programme contexts.