Benefits and barriers of an enterprise's participation in publicly funded R&D projects. The example of Swiss enterprises in the field of renewable energy

Master's Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Energy Sciences, grade: 5.5 (Schweizer Notensystem), Anglia Ruskin University (FHNW University of Applied Sciences Basel (School of Business) & Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge (Ashcroft International Business School)), course: Focus: Renewable energy, public R&D funding, firm competitiveness, language: English, comment: An engaged and methodologically very thoughtful empirical work. The paper's structure is systematic and the individual parts are nicely interwoven. The paper's methodology is sound, balanced and very well-documented. It is thoroughly rooted in state-of-the-art theoretical literature on firm competitiveness and combines quantitative and qualitative surveying. In addition, the thesis draws on many practical insights into R+D funding gained and contacts established during an internship at Zurich-based accelopment AG, which assists firms in accessing and managing public R+D funding. , abstract: This thesis studies the involvement of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in publicly funded research and development (R&D) projects. SMEs represent 99% of all companies in Europe and are important drivers of innovation, yet many lack the necessary resources to engage in formal research activities. Providing these firms with the possibility to make use of public funding programmes for R&D projects therefore constitutes a way of stimulating them to innovate. Reviews of such programmes, however, show that SME participation is frequently lower than desired by policy makers. This raises the question of the benefits SMEs can gain from such projects and the barriers that negatively influence their ability to participate. The author hypothesises that taking part in publicly funded R&D projects can positively influence an SME's competitiveness through a specific set of advantages gained from participation. The second hypothesis is that companies with previous experience in such projects evaluate their participat