Measuring effects of public procurement of innovation

Underway for quite some time now has been the discussion on using public procurement as a means to stimulate innovation. However - with some exceptions this has been mainly a conceptual discussion vastly surpassed a corresponding development of appropriate monitoring tools. Also, even if both qualitative and quantitative studies have been made, they tend to lack connection to the underlying mechanisms envisaged in the conceptual and/or case based literature. A challenge in this endeavour prevails in the nature of how public procurement of innovation works. Some of the effects rendered may not always manifest in ways that are easily quantified on aggregate levels. Other effects may emerge over time, as results of multi-causal effects, which may yet further impose measuring difficulties. Yet a further challenge consists of the uncertainties regarding to what extent the sometimes bold claims about the usefulness of public procurement of innovation are at all realistic and feasible in practice. After reviewing different currently available means to measure both public procurement of innovation measures, as well as public procurement of innovation, the paper outlines a case-based approach to measure public procurement of innovation.