Programmes promoting the digitalisation of Business Finland will be evaluated

During the winter of 2020–2021, MDI, together with Owal Group, Melkior and Resolute HQ, will evaluate 13 Business Finland programmes designed to promote digitalisation. Over the past 15 years, Business Finland (formerly Tekes and Finpro) has supported the digitalisation of Finnish companies’ businesses and helped them to create a global competitive advantage.

The purpose of this work is to produce a comprehensive assessment of the success, results and impacts of the implementation of programmes that have promoted digitisation, as well as of the wider societal ‘added value’ to the development of digitisation in Finland. Particular attention will be paid to examining how the programmes are implemented.

The key questions here are: have the programmes been effective in promoting digitalisation, has the simultaneous launch of several programmes and their cooperation brought the expected synergies and ‘added value’, has the compilation of separate programmes into one large programme entity been a successful way of operating and what ‘added value’ has the large-scale programmatic investment brought about in terms of the promotion of digitalisation in Finland.

Central to the evaluation are company-level statistical analyses using econometric methods. The ultimate goal of the work is to produce development recommendations on how Business Finland’s programme instrument should be developed in the future and how Business Finland should promote the digitisation of companies in Finland in the future.