Market co-creating and shaping through investments in innovation: a comparative analysis of two public funding programmes in Brazil

Abstract

This paper documents the incipient emergence of an active role of the state in Brazil that has been oriented towards creating and shaping markets through investments in innovation. It draws on a comparative analysis of two case studies of funding programmes: the BNDES–FINEP Joint Programme for Supporting Industrial Technological Innovation in the Sugar-based Economy and Sugar-Chemicals Sectors (PAISS), and the Ministry of Health’s Production Development Partnerships Programme (PDPP). In the study, evidence was found within both programmes of five dimensions of effective public–private partnerships, these being that public agencies (i) seized mapped opportunities; (ii) took the lead; (iii) engaged in risk-sharing and institutional building; (iv) pursued risk diversification and competition; and (v) sought an equitable sharing of rewards. After a discussion of the main policy lessons, the paper concludes with a reflection on the specific challenges for building equitable public–private partnerships in the light of the increasingly competitive and global scope of the economy.