Research of technological entrepreneurship development in Nizhny Novgorod region
The transition to a market economy in Russia was accompanied not only with general economy crisis, but also provided wide opportunities for entrepreneurship, including technology sphere. But still, there is a void on peculiarities of technology entrepreneurship development in Russia. That is why the aim of this paper is to consider in dynamics some features of technology enterprises development in the changing context of transitional economy on the example of region that have favorable conditions for the development of technology entrepreneurship. Due to exploratory character of the research, main results are based on 10 case-studies of technology enterprises established in 1990s and 2000s in the region. As a result of conducted study, it is possible to draw general conclusions. In the study, we found some typical features for technology entrepreneurship in the region: the most important resources are people and intellectual property in the form of knowledge and experience of these people; inviolable principle is to minimize external financing; company development strategy is niche and based on the quality and strong client orientation, focusing on core competencies and outsourcing non-core activities. As for the favorable environment, there is still low demand for innovations in the country. However, there are some changes: second generation has a greater willingness to investor’s entry; public attitudes towards entrepreneurship is more tolerant, but attitude toward technology entrepreneurship is transferring from a positive to indifferent; the market environment has become more favorable, but the market is gradually saturated and entry barriers are higher; now there is a shortage of high qualified personnel. Identified factors of technology entrepreneurship will serve as the basis for further research of technology entrepreneurship in the region. The findings and propositions developed in that research can also be useful for investigations in other regions with similar conditions.
Keywords: technology entrepreneurship, transition economy, Russia
