ABSTRACT
The goal of this doctoral research has been determining the efficiency of public subsidies in promoting innovation activities and, finally, technological progress, economic growth and behavioral changes in firms in the direction of knowledge sharing.
The main objective has been to test empirically whether, in the case of the printing industry in Spain, government financial support from central, regional or europan public offices is correlated positively with firms innovation performance and the mediation effect, in this model, of several variables identified by firms structural and organizational characteristics as well as indicators of innovative dynamisms.
The research has been based in the analysis of the  database of the Community Innovation Survey of Spanish firms carried out by INE in 2006. A mediation statistical model based in Baron and Kenny has been utilised for the analysis.
Keywords: R & D, innovation, public funding for innovation, SMEs, Graphic Arts, mediation.