What Government Subsidiary Projects Can Learn from Each Other: The Case of SBIR and SIIR in Taiwan

Abstract

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) is widely adopted by Asian countries after it was initiated in 1998. As a result, the Taiwanese government started a similar funded project in 2005, called Service Industries Innovation Research (SIIR), to cater to the service industries. The two projects have since evolved and are gradually converging owing to the identification of similar issues concerning small and medium enterprises. Therefore, the knowledge accumulated and shared between these two projects can be further enhanced if SIIR can be further researched, and if a comparative research between SBIR and SIIR can be extended based on existing knowledge learned from the SBIR experience and certain incremental knowledge from SIIR implementation. Given the evidence presented in this paper, the proposed research directions and potential fruitful results will benefit the theories and practices of governmental funded projects in Taiwan and in many other countries and regions in the world. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.