What Factors Do Government Subsidy Programs Care about for Inter-Firm Collaboration? Priortization of Evaluation Criteria of Small Business Collabortation Grant, Korea

Purpose: In this study we aim to identify factors affecting successful inter-firm collaboration. We tried to find out whether government subsidies to small-business owners should be made to experienced and competent cooperatives or to cooperatives with potential even if inexperienced. Research design, data and methodology: Using analytic hierarchy process (AHP), we examine if evaluation criteria for the Small Business Collaboration Grant (SBCG) reflect the potential of successful collaboration of applicant cooperatives. Results: We found that experts tend to think that applicant cooperatives without any experience as a recipient for the SBSG need to be evaluated by their growth potential and their preparation of the application rather than by their business performance or achievement history. The weight of the evaluation must be different between the growth potential and the achievements already achieved. By means of an expert survey, we confirmed that Rookies should weigh evaluation indicators that can reflect their growth potential, and experienced groups should give weight to evaluation indicators that can reflect their achievements. Conclusions: For SBCG applicants with experiences, experts tend to weigh more on SBCG business performances and feasible sharing systems. The screening procedure for the first applicant cooperatives need to focus more on “partner selection” stage, whereas elements related to “realization” apply to experienced applicant cooperatives.