Government initiative and start-up firms’ eco-innovation : A case study through the ecological modernisation lens

Government programs to finance small firms or start-ups have attracted a little empirical attention. From an economical perspective, the effect of government grants is evaluated by a measure of innovation or firm productivity. Yet, this paper takes a different approach from economical view aiming to address the research question “How do start ups firms view the relationship between government grants and their co-efficient innovation effort?” Semi-structured interviews with grant recipients (start-up business owners revealed that the grants assist firms to leverage their resource limitations but at the same time the grants also act as a major roadblock for their product development success.