(Hi-Tech Business in Russian Regions)

Pandemic Challenges for the Technological Startups in the Russian Regions

“…Modern digital platforms provide access to global consumers, technologies, and labor markets. At the same time, across the entire venture industry, the impact of ICT may turn out to be less significant, along with the role of clusters and technology parks which have been actively developing in Russia in recent years [Barinova et al, 2020]. 4.…”

“…Even before the pandemic, Russia lagged behind many other post-Soviet countries in this regard [Zbirovsky, 2017], despite the improvement in formal conditions for doing business [Zemtsov, 2020] and the expansion of the toolset applied to support entrepreneurship [Semenova et al, 2019a]. The new venture birth rate remains below the level of the business closures [Obraztsova, Chepurenko, 2020], while the number of new high-tech companies has been decreasing since 2016 [Barinova et al, 2020]. The pandemic shock only exacerbated this trend.…”

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“…Since 2016, the company birth rate (the number of newly created firms per 1,000 existing ones) remains below the death rate. In general, in 2020 the number of new companies in Russia decreased by 23.4%, but the number of registered private high-tech enterprises only fell by 16.8%, i.e., start-ups (private firms with the OKVED codes for mediumand high-technology industries or knowledge-intensive services (Table 2) [Barinova et al, 2020]) turned out to be more resistant to the pandemic's impact than business as a whole. After some growth in 2019, cals, grew faster than other sectors in 2020.…”

“…The success of transportation start-ups can be explained by the demand for unmanned vehicles, but it was more likely caused by the fragmentation of companies and the change of the OKVED codes to receive public support. The entire manufacturing sector accounts for less than 19% of technology start-ups, though their share in the high-tech sector's revenues exceeds 45% [Barinova et al, 2020].…”

“…The top ten regions (including Tatarstan, the Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk, Samara, Nizhniy Novgorod, and Krasnodar regions, and Bashkortostan) account for approximately 62% of start-ups (about 54% in 2013) and 42% of the workforce. The rate of start-up creation (Figure 9) is higher in large metropolitan areas where major educational and research centers, industries with high added value, and a service economy are concentrated [Barinova et al, 2020], and in coastal haven zones where a variety of services to support foreign economic activity are provided (the Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Primorsky, and Krasnodar regions). The start-up density is lower in the North Caucasus (due to the specifics of the local institutional environment) and in the northern mining areas which do not have the necessary infrastructure, large universities, or a technological specialization.…”