Small Business Innovation in the Public Interest

Albert N. Link, Professor Emeritus and former Virginia Batte Phillips Distinguished Professor of Economics, University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Alan C. O’Connor, Senior Vice President for Environment and Senior Economist, Center for Applied Economics and Strategy, RTI International, USA

'The SBIR program has been one of the major underpinnings of the transition of the U.S. economy from a manufacturing base to an innovation base over the past fifty years, but has never received the recognition that it so richly deserves. In this book, two long term researchers on innovation in the U.S., Albert N. Link and Alan C. O’Connor, document the history of the U.S.’s support for small businesses, the history of the NIH and its SBIR and STTR programs. They then carry out a quantitative analysis of the programs’ effectiveness and enormous impact. The book is well written, succinct and richly illustrated with tables and figures.'

• Contents1 Introduction to Small Business Innovation in the PublicInterest 2 Background about the National Institutes of Health 3 A closer look at two NIH Institutes 4 SBIR and STTR at the National Institutes of Health 5 Firms’ sources of knowledge and Phase II SBIR projects 6 Commercialization patterns of SBIR Phase II awardees 7 Commercialization patterns of minority- and womenowned firms 8 Collaboration patterns of NIH-funded small businesses 9 Significance of NIH funding for small businesses 10 Commercialization patterns among multipleawardrecipients11 A road to be traveled References