Innovation Vouchers

Last registered on October 20, 2017

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Innovation Vouchers

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0001556

Initial registration date

August 30, 2016

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

August 30, 2016, 12:36 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated

October 20, 2017, 7:14 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Jonas Heite

Affiliation

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Marco Kleine

PI Affiliation

PI Name

Laura Rosendahl Huber

PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2016-04-18

End date

2018-03-31

Keywords

Finance & Microfinance

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

Innovate UK started an Innovation Vouchers programme in 2012 to provide support SMEs for their innovation activities. The programme provides SMEs from all sectors financial support of up to £5000 (excluding VAT) for engaging the services of experts from academia, research and technology organisations or the private sector to pursue a certain innovative project within the firm. The programme was conducted in several rounds each year. The evaluation of the programme focuses on the three most recent rounds (Rounds 11-13).

The Innovation Vouchers programme operates as a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), which is designed to evaluate causal evidence on the impact and effectiveness of the programme.

In particular, the project team aims to answer the following key questions:
1) Do businesses that are given an Innovation Voucher have more collaboration with external partners than those not given one?
2) Do businesses that are given an Innovation Voucher have more innovation activities than those not given one?
3) Do businesses that are given an Innovation Voucher have a higher innovation output than those not given one?
4) Do businesses that are given an Innovation Voucher have better business performance indicators than those not given one?

Within the analysis, several outcome measures are taken into consideration in order to analyse the impact of the Innovation Vouchers programme.

Hyothesis 1: Innovation vouchers have a positive effect on a firm’s collaboration with external partners.
Primary indicator: Percent of innovation activities conducted with the help of external partners.

Hyothesis 2: Innovation vouchers have a positive effect on a firm’s innovation activities.
Primary indicator: Percent of firm's turnover spent on innovation.

Hyothesis 3: Innovation vouchers have a positive effect on a firm’s innovation output.
Primary indicator: Percent of turnover coming from new or improved products or services.

Hyothesis 4: Innovation vouchers have a positive effect on a firm’s business performance indicators.
Primary indicator: Business turnover.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Heite, Jonas, Laura Rosendahl Huber and Marco Kleine. 2017. "Innovation Vouchers." AEA RCT Registry. October 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1556-3.0

Former Citation

Heite, Jonas, Laura Rosendahl Huber and Marco Kleine. 2017. "Innovation Vouchers." AEA RCT Registry. October 20. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1556/history/22514

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2016-04-18

Intervention End Date

2018-01-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Percent of innovation activities conducted with the help of external partners; Percent of firm's turnover spent on innovation; Percent of turnover from new products/services; Business turnover [in £]

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The Innovation Vouchers programme operates as a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT).

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomly allocated by innovation voucher portal

Randomization Unit

Firm

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

1000 firms

Sample size: planned number of observations

1000 firms

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

800 firms treatment, 200 firms control

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Cohen’s d MDES (using 5% significance and 80% power levels, assuming an R-squared explained by co-variates of at least 0.3) is calculated as follows: Broad category (Intent-to-treat: all businesses passing the lottery): 0.23 Narrow category (Treatment: all businesses passing the lottery and passing the eligibility check): 0.32

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB