Innovations management: specific features and perspectives of development in Russia

At the same time, how efficient will be new strategic initiatives, is not clear yet. Many of the mentioned measures can be criticized for various reasons.For example, the program 5-100 in education is oriented primarily on publication activity of the universities. However, increased demand for publications per se can lead to artificial increase of the number of publications by all means, e.g. by buying affiliations of well-established researchers from RAS institutions, or of foreign researchers. It can also lead to impairments in teaching. Even more importantly, concentrating finances in 15 universities can lead to impairments in performance of many other universities throughout the country. For such a large country as Russia, 15 universities, even very rich and successful, cannot provide the necessary knowledge basis for the innovation economy.The reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been criticized by scientists on the basis that a newly created agency, FANO, begin to direct the scientific research without understanding of science, – and science is ruled by ‘effective managers’ who has no research experience.Large investments in mega-projects like Skolkovo and RosNano may be inefficient since the number of good projects is less then amount of money which must be spent on them. At the same time, initiatives in other fields may have lack of investments.Policy of ‘import-substitution’ can lead to the loss of competitiveness in the fields where Russian companies are somehow or other integrated in global value chains such as IT.One of important problem which was almost not addressed by the mentioned initiatives is lack of improvements in human capital reproduction and development. As has been already noted, financial support is very local and do not provide the necessary conditions for mass production of knowledge base. Improvements are needed in such fields as salaries, career opportunities, social prestige of researchers and engineers.Other fields which need a special attention may include:1. Support of hi-tech export. Russian market is relatively small, and to provide opportunities for hi-tech firms’ growth, it is important to force them to penetrate export markets. For this reason, hi-tech export must be supported by less tight regulations, state guarantees, lobbying in foreign markets, tax bonanza, and other measures. Advanced and unique technologies developed by Russian state-owned and commercial organizations, must be supported for the first place, to obtain its share in the global market. One such example includes the national global navigation system GLONASS which can become a real competitor for GPS throughout the world.2. Simplification of access to investments for innovation firms via tax regulation, protection of foreign investments rights, and other measures. Another important way is extended access to markets via appropriate regulations of state-owned companies’ and budgetary organizations’ tender policy and practices.3. Focused support of Russian fast-growing technological firms which can become the new growing-points for the national economy in case they obtain regulatory and financial support from the state and commercial sector, e.g. in the form of state guarantees for credits (see RVC, 2015b).4. Opening the decision-making mechanisms with regard to innovation sectors for independent experts, innovation firms, especially in SME, academic sector. These actors are key elements of the National innovation system and must have access to the process of governmental decision-making, and must be assured their participation would not be a fiction and their opinions are important indeed.Success in these and other institutional and environmental changes are crucial for perspectives of innovation management at the firm level. In all the contemporary technological leaders (USA, EU, Japan, South Korea, China), effective innovation management practices became possible after significant governmental efforts in institutional and infrastructural improvements. South Korea, for example, became the world’s leader in shipbuilding after implementation of several state programs. Innovation management efficiency strongly depends on external factors: available talented workforce, regulatory environment, openness of markets, technology transfer institution. Without appropriate environment, even the best managerial practices will not succeed. Many Russian managers and innovators now have experience of working in a more comfortable business environment abroad. A promising strategy for improvements in innovation management in Russia is a more active lobbying of innovation business needs and concerns in governmental bodies via such institutions as Russian Venture Company, RUSSOFT, and others. Currently, many start-ups, especially in IT, prefer to shift their business in a different location. In case they are more active in joint actions in Russia, there will be more chances to improve the innovation environment and thus the opportunities available for firm’s innovation management.ConclusionInnovations are important for any modern country. For Russia, however, the situation differs from that of many other countries. Due to its specific geopolitical situation, its innovation system cannot be exactly the same as, for example, in European Union. Such a level of technological and innovation integration with foreign partners is impossible. However, this doesn’t mean that Russia must set the goal of absolute closeness and self-dependence. Instead, its aim must be obtaining competences and resources necessary to develop and export highly advanced and unique technological solutions which are appreciated by global markets and force external partners to collaborate in a mutually profitable manner (as is probably the case in some fields of aerospace industry).However, to obtain such a position, Russia should seriously invest (both in terms of financial and organizational measures) in the creation and reproduction of its knowledge base and innovation environment in general. Of a special attention should be support of human capital development, and the overall social, economic, and political environment in the society, fostering the basic conditions for innovations.REFERENCESBaregheh A., Rowley J., Sambrook S. (2009). Towards a Multidisciplinary Definition of Innovation. Management Decision. Vol. 47, pp.1323-1339.MEDRF, OG, RVC (2015). National Report on Innovations in Russia. – Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, Open Government, Russian Venture Company.OECD & Eurostat (2005). Oslo Manual. Proposed Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Technological Innovation Data. – OECD, Eurostat.Rogers M. (1998). The Definition and Measurement of Innovation. – Melbourne Institute Working Paper No. 10/98.RVC (2015a). Russia: Focus on Innovations. Public Analytical Report. – Russian Venture Company.RVC (2015b). Candidates for Champions. – Russian Venture Company.RVC (2016). Public Discussion of the National Innovation Report in Russia. – Russian Venture Company.WIPO (2016). World Intellectual Property Organization: Statistics. – URL: http://ipstats.wipo.int.