Transformation of the Regional Innovation Sub-system as a Factor in the Development of the Digital Economy

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to study the problems and prospects of cooperation between regional economic actors interested in innovative development and able to create favorable conditions for the production and distribution of digital technologies. Methodology. For this study, we employed the data provided by the Federal Statistics Service that describes the position of innovative activity of enterprises and companies as well as constituent entities of the Russian Federation. To unite regions into homogeneous groups, we utilized a comparative analysis, an index method, and an integral generalization. The study covers 2014–2017. The indicators describing the level of the regional innovation subsystem development within the establishment of the digital economy are as follows: The of companies engaged in R&D, percentage of innovation-active organizations, share of the costs for technological innovation in the structure of GRP, and others. Results. We divided Russian territories into groups depending on the overall performance of the region’s innovative activity. After a comparison of average values of innovation activity indicators in Russian regions with the actual figures achieved in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, we identified two types of regions: innovation suppliers and innovation receivers. The threshold value of the overall performance of innovation activity ensured the impartiality of ranking, but it remains conditional because the dynamic development of the Russian economy leads to increasing representativeness of receiving regions. The conditionality of classification was taken into account when developing recommendations on the formation of an innovative environment in regions able to change their status in the short term. Recommendations. The differences revealed in the level of innovation activity of Russian regions became the basis for the development of recommendations regarding the ability of some regions to act as innovation suppliers and the needs of other regions for innovation interferences. It was proposed to use an original combination of methods and tools aimed at the effective transformation of the regional innovation subsystem assisting the formation of conditions for the development of the digital economy depending on the level of innovation activity achieved by various types of regions.