Evaluación de las políticas europeas de innovación empresarial en el sector tecnológico medioambiental: Análisis de la ejecución del Programa FEDER-Innterconecta del Fondo Tecnológico 2007-2013 en Galicia

Resumen:Se evalúan las políticas de innovación empresarial en el campo tecnológico medioambiental en Galicia a través de la implementación del Programa Operativo para y por el beneficio de la I+D+i empresarial-Fondo Tecnológico 2007-2013, que constituyó un instrumento singular de las políticas de innovación financiadas por los Fondos Estructurales de la Unión Europea dirigido especialmente a las comunidades autónomas españolas con Objetivo Convergencia. A través del análisis propuesto se trata de identificar el impacto de este Programa plurianual, que moviliza una cantidad importante de recursos para innovar y que se extendió hasta 2015, en la evolución de los principales indicadores de I+D+i de las empresas innovadoras en el campo tecnológico medioambiental. Con este fin se analizan los diferentes tipos de medidas y actuaciones financiadas y su efecto en los principales indicadores de innovación (productividad, inversión, gasto y esfuerzo en investigación y desarrollo, solicitud de patentes, etc.), contrastando los objetivos perseguidos y los resultados observados para el sector. La metodología propuesta combina elementos cuantitativos y cualitativos, por lo que también se analizan aspectos institucionales y organizacionales que inciden en el diseño, implementación y gestión de las medidas y su posible incidencia en los resultados observados (concentración de las actividades innovadoras en un número limitado de sectores, tipología de agentes participantes, etc.). Abstract: The aim of this study is to assess on the impact of the regional innovation policies in the business environmental sector in Galicia throughout the implementation of the Operational Programme for the benefit of business R&D&i-Technology Fund 2007-2013, which was a unique instrument of innovation policies financed by the Structural Funds of the European Union and directed to the Spanish autonomous communities belonging to the Convergence Objective. The proposed analysis intendeds to identify the results of this multiannual programme, which mobilized a significant volume of resources for innovation and whose implementation is scheduled until 2015, on the evolution of the environmental technology field. To this end, the different types of measures and actions financed in this programme and their effects on the main innovation indicators (productivity, investment, expenditure and effort on research and development, patent applications, etc.) will be analyzed, contrasting the objectives pursued and the results observed. This evaluation will also face difficulties, such as the choice of the appropriate measurement of the effects of the policies, the measurement of the cost-benefits of the programme analysed and the causal attribution of the impact of the policy. Despite this, the evaluation of an innovation policy must not lose sight of the complexity and multi-causality of the relationships produced, which can provoke a certain indetermination in the effects of the policy analysed. By the way, the truth is that the current challenges that the capitalist system is facing are creating a growing awareness in relation to the direction of innovation policies and the effects they cause in society (Pereira & Vence, 2016). Given the current trends, there is no doubt that much of the attractiveness of companies will be marked in the future by their respect for the environment. Along these lines, previous studies such as those by Chen, Lai & Wen (2006) and Palmer & Truong (2017) show the relationship between environmental innovations and business competitiveness and profits. In the European context, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) expressly states that the environment is an area which constitutes a shared competence between the EU and the Member States (TFEU, art. 4, 2012). At the same time, the obligation to integrate environmental protection requirements into the definition and implementation of EU policies and activities is maintained (TFEU, art. 11, now art. 6 TEC, 2004). The Structural Funds have been the instrument designed by the EU to support regional development, as well as Research, Development and Innovation, also in the environmental field. In this sense, in the 2007-2013 programming period, the ERDF has promoted actions in this field in Spain through Technology Fund (object of study) and the Operational Programme for the Knowledge-Based Economy. For this reason, we have chosen to analize the most important programme supporting business Research, Development and Innovation belonging to the Technology Fund, the ERDF-Innterconecta programme. It is generally agreed that access to public funds -such as the Structural Funds- has been shown to be an effective measure to boost companies´ capacity to generate eco-innovations, especially if there is ample provision of external and internal resources (Cecere, Corrocher & Mancusi, 2018). In fact, business access to financial resources supporting innovation in environmental technology has also demonstrated improvements in emission reductions and business results (Klemetsen, Rosendhal.& Jakobsen, 2016) and productivity (Jaraite & De María; 2016). In any case, recent studies (Wielgórka & Szczepaniak, 2019) have precisely pointed to the lack of financing and access to credit, and the high implementation costs, as the main difficulties faced by SMEs in achieving eco-innovations. Empirical results suggest that public funds for eco-innovation are generally perceived by these agents as complementary to other external sources of funding (Costa, García-Quevedo & Segarra, 2014) tough, in any case, the effects induced by an environmental innovation policy will depend on the nature of the instruments used (Ghisetti & Pontoni, 2015) and on specificities such as cooperation with external partners (i.e. suppliers, universities and companies providing knowledge-intensive services) that will make it possible to replace part of the effects produced by internal R&D efforts (De Marchi, 2012). This research has a remarkable empirical nature, since it has been necessary to gather and process quantitative and qualitative data from numerous sources to conduct the study. Regarding the implementation of the Operational Programme itself, information was available from the Ministry of Finance; for the R&D data, it was necessary to resort to the statistical bodies at regional level -the Galician Institute of Statistics [IGE]-, at national level -the Spanish Institute of Statistics [INE]-, and at European level -Eurostat and the European Patent Office-; for specific information on the operation and implementation of the programmes in Galicia, information was available from the Department of Finances of the Xunta de Galicia; the data of the companies participating in the ERDF-Innterconecta calls for proposals in Galicia have been analysed thanks to information from the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI); finally, specific information has been constructed for this research and the unexploited information obtained from the ARDAN database has also been used. The conclusions of the study show that the programme's impact varies according to the type of project and the type of companies receiving public funding through the Innterconecta programme belonging to the Technology Fund. The conclusions drawn also allow formulate recommendations for design and implementation for other Research, Development and Innovation policies in the territory that foster greater prominence of environmental technology change for innovative companies.