Government influence on the process of innovation in Europe and Japan

A total of 164 innovation projects were sampled in five industries to determine the effect, if any, of government policy on their conduct and outcome. Sixty-six of the projects had at the time of the study achieved commercial success, in the view of the firms involved. Fifty-one were considered failures, while 47 were still underway. Nearly half of the projects had been affected by one or mechanisms of government policy. There is no indication that this degree of government involvement has either increased or decreased in recent years. There is also no indication that government involvement influenced success or failure, in any way. It does appear, however, that technology has been relatively successful in coping with government regulation in the area of safety, pollution control, etc., since projects affected by these policies were significantly more likely to be successful.