Outline of company questionnaire used for SME innovation subsidy evaluation (Case

Questionnaire was sent by post and answered on a voluntary basis

1.2.1. Introductory text

Dear Madame /Sir! Your enterprise received, during the past years, support from the donor agency OMFB for the purpose of implementing a project with an innovative content. These forms of support are now, subsequently evaluated from that viewpoint, whether they have promoted research, development, and innovation activity within the enterprises, and whether they have, as far as their content and realisation is concerned, met the expectations of the enterprises. Please help our work by way of answering the following questions.

1.2.2. Questionnaire

Questions concerning the beneficiary enterprise

What was the legal form of the applicant enterprise at the time of the tender? (sole proprietorship, partnership, Ltd., shareholding company, economic cooperation, state-owned enterprise, other, namely: )

Is there a foreign owner in your company? (yes, his proportion of ownership is ….%, there is no foreign co-owner)

How many full time workers did the company employ at the time of submitting the application? ( less than 10 people, between 11 and 50 people, between 51 and 250 people, between 251 and 500 people, over 500 people) Do you consider your firm to be a small, medium, or large enterprise? Why?

How many hierarchical steps are there between the leaders and employees of the lowest positions? (in words) How innovative, innovation-oriented do you regard your firm to be and why? (in words)

What is the role and respect of mental work, of mental contribution to innovative activity within your firm? (in words)

Questions concerning the circumstances and the financing of the application In which year did you submit the application?

What was the name of the tender for which you have submitted the application? (e.g.: ―Tender for the development of export")

In which phase is the project at the moment? (Completed – has not been completed and it is proceeding faster than planned – has not been completed and it is proceeding according to the plans – has not been completed and it is proceeding more slowly than planned)

How much money did your company ask for in the application? ( ….. Hungarian Forints) How much money did your company receive? ( ….. Hungarian Forints)

Did you succeed to keep expenses within the planned financial frame of the project? (yes, we succeeded – no, we did not succeed) If you did not succeed, please explain, in a few sentences, why not? (in words)

Did you succeed in operating according to the plan of the stages of the utilisation of the money in the project?

(yes, we succeeded – no, we did not succeed) If you did not succeed, please explain, in a few sentences, why not? (in words)

Why, do you think it was your firm which has received support? What do you think was missing in others' applications, in those who were not as lucky as you were?

Questions related to the professional content of the project

Please, write down in a few sentences, the professional purpose of the supported project. (in words)

To what extent can the project, for which you received financial support, be regarded as an innovation and why?

(in words)

If the supported project is an innovation: is this a product-, or technology- (proceeding) centred innovation? (in words)

Does the innovation embodied in the project facilitate only the work of your firm, or somebody else’s work as well? If somebody else’s, then whose? (in words)

Does your company keep the innovation to itself? If not, through which channels will the innovation embodied in the project will spread further on? (in words)

Competitors, as a rule, try to respond to every innovation by substituting it with a product / service of their own.

Which product / service / company is the most serious competitor of the innovation embodied in the project? (in words)

Is there some organisational change generated by the supported innovation? If yes, what kind of organisational changes, at which companies and in which services? (in words)

Are the further impacts of the innovation by the project? (in words)

With respect to the project as it is now, to what extent have you succeeded in fulfilling the professional aims as put down in your application document? (not at all – to a small extent – more or less – to a satisfactory extent – we have succeeded in completing it fully)

If you succeeded in fulfilling what you had planned in your application only to a small extent: please give your opinion briefly on why your professional purposes have not been fully completed? (in words)

Please write down briefly what you have achieved with the help of the project supported by the OMBF tender.

Impacts of the project

Has the supported project had impacts, consequences and if it has, of what character? (More than one answer is possible: the making of a prototype - increase of market share - increase of revenue - decreased labour costs at the applicant company - decreased labour costs at the clients of the applicant company – decreased total costs at the applicant firm – decreased total costs of the clients of the applying firm - the project closed unsuccessfully - the project closed very unsuccessfully and has damaged the applicant firm – the project did not have any considerable impact)

Have there been any changes in the number of fully employed persons at your company? (Increased – did not change – decreased)

If the number of employees has changed, how is this fact connected to the project? Please give your opinion briefly, in a few sentences. (in words)

Have your employees received some special training in order to be able to implement the project? (yes – no)

Does your project have any results which are still viable? (Yes – no) If it does, which are those? (in words) If not, why not? (in words)

If your project is not finished yet: will it have viable results after it has been closed?

If you project will have viable results: which are those? (in words) If there will not be such results, why not? (in words)

As far as the export activity of your company is concerned, which statement is true in your case? (we do not pursue export activities – earlier we did, but since 19□□ we do not – we pursue export activity – we pursue export activity and plan to expand it covering new markets in the future – we do not pursue export activity yet, but plan to do so)

If you have ever had export activity, please list your target countries. (in words)

How has your revenue changed since the introduction of the project up till now? (It increased by □□ % - it has not changed – it decreased by □□ %)

To what extent has the share of export revenues within the total revenue changed since the start of the project?

(It increased by □□ % - it has not changed – it decreased by □□ %)

Do you think the results of your developments are also competitive on the markets of the European Community?

(yes – no)

Do you have a quality assurance system? (yes, we have - we have not, but plan to have one in □□□□ – we have not and do not plan to have one, either)

Have you created, in the course of the project, cooperation with other partners? (Yes, the number of our partners acquired in the course of the project is □□, among these □□ possess a quality assurance system – no)

What, do you think, would have happened to your project without the export supporting tender of the OMFB?

Please, write down your opinion. (in words)

Would the innovation embodied by the project have realised without the support? If not, why not? If yes, how much later? What would have been the effects of not having the support (a) on your enterprise (b) on the innovation? (in words)

Opinions about the donor organisation

Please rate the following statements according to what extent you find them to be true. (1 – not at all true, 2 - to a certain extent, 3 - more or less true 4 – satisfactorily true 5 - fully true)

The donor organisation (the OMFB)

…cooperates with us

…is a predictable partner

…developed a relationship of professional character with us

… developed an relationship of administrative character with us

…cooperates with us in an authoritative way

…is a helping partner

…is a business partner

…is a supervising organisation

…lets us work on our own

…wants to know about each phase of the project

…clearly puts down its conditions

…gives us freedom in the implementation of the project

…sets limits for us in the implementation of the project

…keeps continuous contact with us

…regards us as an equal partner

…helps the realisation of the project with ideas

…has delegated professional clerks for this task

…and our company has communicated with each other on equal terms.

The donor organisation has …

… the necessary expertise for the judgement of the applications

…a satisfactory administrative capacity

…a satisfactory quality of administration

…developed an administration which helps to implement the project The tender…

…makes us think over the project thoroughly

…is fair because we take it for natural that we also have to undertake financial sacrifice in order to implement the project

…is fair because we take it for natural to pay back the credit

…has defined requirements that are difficult to meet

…has contributed to our possibilities to improve quality

…conforms with up-to-date expectations

…corresponds to European norms

…benefits Hungary as a whole

Opinions about SME innovativeness and about the whole of the SME supporting system

Do you think such a system of tenders is justified in a market economy? Please write down your opinion briefly.

What kind of support / system of tenders would you need? Please write down your opinion briefly.

If you were a supporting organisation, how would you help the Hungarian companies to develop their ability to export, their level of innovation and their quality assurance system and how would you promote the accession to the EU? Please write down your opinion briefly.

Do you think the state should support innovative enterprises? If you think it should, (a) why, (b) how and (c) what kind of objectives of these enterprises should be supported?

How typical, do you think, it is that small- and medium enterprises are innovative? Under what conditions does a small enterprise become innovative?

What do you think, if your enterprise was bigger (or smaller), would it be harmful or useful for its innovative activity? Why?

Do you think the state should support small enterprises (regardless of whether they are innovative or not)? If yes, (a) why, (b) how and (c) what kind of objectives of these enterprises should be supported?

Thank you for your co-operation!

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1.3. Outline of company questionnaire used for SMEs around

In document Evaluation and Impact Assessment of Business Climate Development (Pldal 121-125)