Pre-commercial procurement, procurement of innovative solutions and innovation partnerships in EU: rationale and strategy

We discuss public procurement instruments for acquiring innovation, focusing on the European Pre-commercial Procurement, Procurement of Innovative Solutions and Innovation Partnerships. We analyse in particular how firms’ innovation incentives are affected by: (i) economies of scope and externalities between R&D and large-scale production; (ii) the degree of specificity of the innovation; (iii) the presence of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the market and the level of market competition; (iv) the risk of market foreclosure and supplier lock-in. Our study contributes to the literature on incentives in demand-side innovation policy by tapping into the contractual design features and by offering relevant implications for academics and policy makers.