Small Businesses are More Active as Inventors than as Innovators in the Innovation Process.

Abstract

In this report, GAO analyzes a number of studies that examine sources of invention and innovation and presents conclusions drawn from these studies about the contributions of small businesses to the innovation process. GAO concludes that small businesses have been important contributors to the innovation process and that they have been more active in invention than in innovation (actually bringing an invention to market). While GAO was not able to generalize from the existing evidence to specify the level of small businesses' future contributions, no evidence was found to suggest that they might be less important to invention and innovation in the future than they have been in the past. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 31, 1981
Accession Number
ADA145063

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Business Administration
  • Commerce
  • Corporations
  • Economic Systems
  • Finance
  • Governments
  • House Of Representatives
  • Industrial Research
  • Investments
  • Manufacturing
  • Marketing
  • Money
  • New York
  • Small Business
  • Taxes
  • United States
  • West Germany

Fields of Study

  • Business

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Defense Technology Research and Development.
  • Systems Analysis and Design