EFFECTS OF GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT ON INDUSTRIAL-INNOVATION

Several strategies for converting government procurement into instruments of technology policy are reviewed. By examining case studies, the author addresses factors that explain the role of government procurement in innovation. The most important factors are: the technological capacity of the public sector user, the value of orders that allows the supplier to reduce the risk associated with innovation, and the relation between needs and requirements. Since procurement policy is first and foremost a series of,political decisions concerning government services and the ways to render them, political factors are also considered.