Журнал Национального исследовательского университета «Высшая школа экономики»

The new special issue of the Foresight and STI Governance journal (vol. 11, № 3) is devoted to various aspects of innovative entrepreneurship in transition economies. Researchers and experts from Russia, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, and Turkey share their views on the topic.

The paper “Entrepreneurial Activity in Post-Socialist Countries: Methodology and Research Limitations” by Alexander Chepurenko opens the issue. The author focuses on measuring business activity of the population in Eastern and Central European post-socialist countries on the basis of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data. The paper presents existing classifications of entrepreneurship ecosystems, and suggests a new typology based on the quality of entrepreneurial activity and the state of the entrepreneurial framework conditions in respective countries. The author’s conclusions can help with shaping entrepreneurship support policies. 

The paper “From Entrepreneurial Aspirations to Founding a Business: The Case of Russian Students” analyses factors promoting or hindering the transition from entrepreneurial intentions to actually founding a business. Karina Bogatyreva and Galina Shirokova also consider such aspects as coming from a business-owning family, having support from the university entrepreneurial environment, and development level of relevant regional institutions. The authors conclude that coming from a business-owning family discourages potential entrepreneurs from actually starting their own company. On the other hand, an advanced regional institutional environment increases the chances for implementing students’ entrepreneurial intentions. 

The accelerated technological development creates serious challenges for the future labour market. As machines learn to accomplish increasingly complex production tasks, the concern arises that automation will wipe out a great number of jobs. Based on a survey of German households, Alina Sorgner in the paper “The Automation of Jobs: A Threat for Employment or a Source of New Entrepreneurial Opportunities?” assesses this process’s effect on labour mobility. The author describes the latest labour market trends created by automation of jobs, analyses dynamics of self-employment, and reveals their connection with the potential for computerising production operations. 

Przemyslaw Zbierowski in his paper “The Aspirations of New Technology-Based Firms in CEE and CIS Countries” studies expectations and intentions of technology-based entrepreneurs in Russia and CEE countries regarding growth, expansion to external markets, and adopting innovation strategies. The author estimates such companies’ contribution to economic and social development of respective countries. Radical differences were revealed between them regarding almost all of the indicators, with Russia having the lowest values and “leadership” shared by different countries. Przemyslaw Zbierowski concludes that in the medium term, new high-tech entrepreneurs’ contribution is likely to remain quite different in various transition economies, while the differences between their specific entrepreneurial conditions are expected to increase further. 

R&D-based startups serve as a powerful driver of economic growth. The paper “Stakeholder Relationships in the Framework of R&D-based Startups: Evidence from Turkey” analyses specific features of this process using various Turkish companies as an example. Elif Kalayci concludes that any company’s development is affected by two opposing forces – some stakeholders provide support, while others challenge it. At various stages such stakeholders may move on from one group into the other, and back. Companies’ initial prospects are determined by actions of the family members and public officials. A versatile, multifaceted approach to running the company also plays an important role. 

Despite the available government support, startups in transition economies mostly rely on their own funds (as opposed to institutional funding sources), which hinders development of entrepreneurship. Olga Obraztsova, Tatiana Poliakova, and Ekaterina Popovskaya in their paper “The Choice of Funding Sources for Start-Ups in a Transitional Economy: The Ability to Predict in a National Context” analyse key factors affecting the choice of funding sources by startup owners in specific socio-economic contexts. The authors suggest various models for predicting financial strategies of early-stage entrepreneurs, and hypotheses regarding the conditions which would promote entrepreneurs to more actively use borrowed capital. 

Russian small and medium companies do not make an appreciable contribution to employment or GDP growth. However, their potential for growth, and for benefiting from economies of scale hasn’t been adequately researched yet. The paper by Victoria Golikova and Boris Kuznetsov “Suboptimal Size: Factors Preventing the Growth of Russian Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises” presents various aspects affecting company managers’ perception of the “perfect” company size for achieving competitiveness. Russian small business owners’ satisfaction with the size of their companies increases if they have access to skilled personnel, developed infrastructure, a network of partners, a wide scope of available markets, and favourable institutional conditions. 

The knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) sector demonstrates a high level of innovation activity, while demand for detailed studies of specific segments of this industry is growing. In the paper “Innovation Configurations in Knowledge-Intensive Business Services” Ian Miles, Veronika Belousova, and Nikolay Chichkanov, using a sample of Russian companies, analyse various innovation types and correlation between demand for knowledge-intensive business services and customers’ own innovation activity. The authors propose to group companies into the following clusters: non-innovators; organisational change innovators; marketing innovators; technology-oriented innovators; non-technological innovators and diversified innovators. The more active a KIBS company is in the market, the more diversified its innovation profile tends to be.

Jana Hojnik, Mitja Ruzzier, and Tatiana Manolova address the topic of eco-innovations. Their paper “Eco-Innovation and Firm Efficiency: Empirical Evidence from Slovenia” analyses correlation between various types of innovations and companies’ productivity, depending on their innovation activity level. The study is based on the dynamic potential concept and the data collected through a survey of Slovenian companies which apply eco-innovations. The authors established that organisational eco-innovations can increase companies’ productivity regardless of their innovation potential: the higher the firm’s overall innovation potential, the more often it applies eco-innovations. 

You can buy the latest issue of theForesight and STI Governance journal in Moscow at the HSE’s own shop BookVyshka (20 Myasnitskaya St.), or subscribe to a paper edition. The electronic version is freely available at the journal’s website, online libraries e-Library and Cyberleninka, and through mobile applications available at AppStore and GooglePlay.