Public Procurement for Innovation in Korea

Public procurement for innovation is used as one of the major policy tools to stimulate innovation and promote growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Korea. However, it is evaluated that this policy has not been so effective in promoting technological innovation among SMEs largely because it heavily depends on price competitiveness of SMEs products and services. In order to draw some policy implications, this study examines the PPI policies of selected countries as comparative references and conducts an empirical analysis on Korean Public Procurement Services (PPS) data for identifying challenges of the current policy in Korea. We conclude that in order to enhance technological innovations of SMEs, PPI policy in Korea should 1) focus more on the potential competitiveness of SMEs, 2) enlarge public demands especially on R&D services, 3) encourage private sector participation in the public procurement market, 4) improve the assessment criteria for public procurement market registration, and 5) restructure the responsible organizations.