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Seizing the window of opportunity? The Swedish public innovation system’s support to private business in the early Covid-19 pandemic

Author

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  • Fridholm, Tobias

    (Jönköping International Business School)

Abstract
This paper investigates the Swedish public innovation system’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic during 2020 in terms of initiatives targeting private business. It is based on a review of the websites of 181 major national and regional organisations in the Swedish public innovation system. A total of 208 initiatives were observed. The study shows that almost all national agencies and regional councils responded, but among more specialised organisations the response was scattered. The responses were on general rather swift, and most of them concerned short-term crisis management. Initiatives to build long-term strength, e.g. re-skilling or platforms for potentially more radical renewal, were much fewer and often thematically unspecified. There is a moderately strong correlation between region size and response, but also regional differences on other dimensions, for example, regions strong in innovation involved expertise in specialised innovation support organisations to a much higher extent than other. Almost all university response came from ‘young’ universities. The largest and most research-intensive universities are almost absent in the material. Policy implications focus on the need to strengthen the innovation system’s capacity to be agile and initiate support initiatives with long-term perspectives in times of crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Fridholm, Tobias, 2023. "Seizing the window of opportunity? The Swedish public innovation system’s support to private business in the early Covid-19 pandemic," Papers in Innovation Studies 2023/5, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2023_005
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    industrial and innovation policy; public innovation support; regional innovation policy; regional resilience; sustainability transitions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy
    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy

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