This paper investigates the migration flows of uni-corns – private companies that achieve a market value of at least one billion USD within ten years. This concept was recently introduced by professional investors but has actively entered the global expert and political agenda. The ability of national innovation systems to grow unicorns has become a new hallmark of success. This study uses the most complete sample of companies as of July 2022 (1,357 unicorns), for each of them we identified the founders, their countries of birth, and the educational institutions they graduated from.Among the main results, it is revealed that 40% of billion-dollar companies were created with the participation of foreign founders. The authors identified three country groups depending on the founders’ migration flows direction: “attracting” unicorns, “growing on their own” and “losing everything”. A comparative analysis of countries’ innovation profiles made it possible to identify the unicorn growth and attraction factors. It is emphasized that universities are a significant resource for both strategies, since most of the founders graduated from the leading world universities and every third foreign entrepreneur was educated in the country of migration. It is shown that the strategy of attracting foreign founders complements the growth strategy and could provide the main flow of unicorn founders. The authors noted that the leading unicorn countries are actively involved in the global migration flow: they not only attract the founders, but also act as their largest suppliers. The authors put forward recommendations for attracting unicorn companies.

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The purpose of this article is to assess how internal and external complementarity linkages are responsible for the emergence of new specialization industries in the context of Russian regions in the period from 2005 to 2015, taking into account other factors that are significant for the emergence of such industries. The internal complementary linkages are measured by the share of new specialization industries related to existing specialization industries in the same region. External complementarity linkages are measured by the share of new specialization industries related to existing specialization industries in neighboring regions. Our data show that internal and external complementarity linkages have a strong positive effect on the emergence of new specialization industries, with a greater effect had by external ones. The number of specialization industries, the number of employees, market potential, gross domestic expenditure on research and development (R&D), domestic patent applications, working population with a higher education, and the distance from the administrative center of a region to the nearest million‐plus city also influence the emergence of new specialization industries, while gross regional product (GRP) per worker, the share of companies using the internet, and special economic zones do not. In addition, we assess the models that predict beginning of the process of diversification in a region. Finally, some policy measures are suggested for the creation of new specialization industries for Russia.

Доклад, подготовленный Институтом статистических исследований и экономики знаний Национального исследовательского университета «Высшая школа экономики» в рамках деятельности Российской кластерной обсерватории, посвящен изучению инновационных и промышленных кластеров в нефтегазовом секторе. В исследовании анализируются изменения технологической специализации регионов добычи нефтегазового сырья, проводится их сопоставление с другими субъектами Российской Федерации по показателям инновационной активности. Рассмотрены особенности кластерного развития ресурсных территорий, изменение предпринимательской активности в секторе нефтегазодобычи, дана подробная характеристика сырьевых регионов с точки зрения их производственного и инновационного потенциала в анализируемой сфере. Приведенные в докладе сведения будут полезны представителям нефтегазовых компаний, государственных органов федерального и регионального уровней, а также профильного экспертного сообщества для выявления резервов и уточнения траекторий развития нефтегазовых кластеров, определения приоритетных направлений поддержки технологического развития нефтегазовой отрасли в целом.

One of the key tasks of the authorities at all levels is to increase competitiveness and accelerate economic growth. In foreign literature, a lot of works are devoted to the study of innovations and their role in the development of states. A number of authors consider the problems related to the direct management of innovation systems, researching and analyzing from different points of view. The purpose of this article is to acquaint the interested circle of readers with the evolution of approaches to the management of innovative systems from the national level to the local one, with the current research results and their directions.