Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) have faced a heavy economic burden and uncertainty due to a contraction in resources and markets. As the world returns to normal conditions, we aim to synthesise key lessons from the pandemic and discuss which emergency actions should become routine to prevent or minimise the negative economic impact of future crises on SMEs and their innovation power. This paper reviews academic and non-academic literature on how governments can stimulate industrial innovation in SMEs based on experiences from public procurement of innovation during the pandemic. Our findings indicate that public procurement of innovation is a crucial tool to stimulate both the economy and new ideas. Against this backdrop, we propose the implementation of three related procurement policies: inter-agency and inter-governmental collaboration in the public procurement of innovation, cooperation partnerships between the government and firms, and the adoption of practices that encourage SME participation in the procurement of public innovation contracts.
Keywords: small and medium-sized enterprises; innovation; emergency management; procurement of innovation