I'd like to remind you of another concept which fits into this topic, namely that organizations lose know-how if they don't use it. Scientists and engineers retire or die, or get other jobs and move on, and if no new ones are trained in new projects, hands-on know-how is lost. That means that you can never stop development for longer time frames or your people lose research points and components or techs must be researched anew partially.
That means know-how is not represented by individuals but on an institutional level. It also means that the loss of knowledge is gradual as other people in the institution take over.
It means you have to build ships and equipment and throw taxpayer money at weapons conglomerates even if you don't really need the product. As another incentive for actually building stuff, it gives you research points in the next tech level of the techs the component is based on, while not building means you lose RP (and construction rate BP...). This could actually be the only way private industry can produce RP points! Just researching out of the blue is state research. This sounds like a possible differentiation between state and private. And one cross-pollinates the other.
The more complex stuff people build, the better they get, yielding more RP, and in turn, research the next level quicker. This is capped by the research rate tech.
One way to establish private companies is to sell production factories (or shipyards...) to the civilians. But this can actually be roleplayed right now. It would be just immersive if you could (must...) parcel out a number of installations (or partial installations...) and name and specialize them. They also have a place where they are located. They can be broken up (or partially destroyed in the fighting...) but then lose know-how which makes them lose RP rate and construction rate.
