Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the adequacy of public policies that support innovation in small businesses in a swinging economy, particularly in Brazil.1 1 We chose Brazil as a proxy to study public policies on innovation and small businesses in a swinging economy for a few reasons, namely: (a) Sen (2010) singles out Brazil as one example of a country that was successful in fast economic growth, but has failed to redistribute its benefits to the poor; (b) the country has been facing its longest and most severe recession, thus dropping several rankings in global competitiveness and innovation indexes (Cornell University et al., 2018; WEF, 2018); (c) Brazil remains one of the most unequal countries in the world since the 1980s, with the most recent data suggesting the country’s 10% richest receive more than 55% of the national income share (Alvaredo, Chancel, Piketty, Saez, & Zucman, 2017). In order to make our case for more adequate public policies on innovation, we develop five propositions based on the assumption that innovation policies focused on fostering socioeconomic development should meet. We adopted a documentary research design, as we examined the policies produced by governmental bodies and agencies at the three governmental levels in Brazil - federation, states, and cities. Also, qualitative content analysis was performed in order to organize, codify and interpret the messages delivered by current innovation policies in the country. We found that most public policies on innovation and small businesses are short-sighted and generalist, borrowing metrics and evaluation criteria from the big enterprise context in an one-size-fits-all manner that, ultimately, cannot be applied to most small businesses and local contexts. As a contribution to theory, our five propositions could be used as starting points for future policy and administration research. On a practical level, we propose recommendations to policy-makers and offer insights on how an adequate policy affects a country’s competitiveness and socioeconomic development.
Keywords:
innovation; public policy; small business; adequacy; swinging economy; Brazil