The Innovation Process of Russian Manufacturing Companies

The aim of this study is to identify and analyse the most widespread types of innovation processes practiced by Russian companies. For this purpose, an innovation process is represented as a combination of a set of elementary processes. The following processes are considered to be elementary in the paper: creation, imitation, modification and distribution of innovations. At a given moment in time, any of the aforementioned elementary processes or their combinations can be implemented. This approach makes it possible to analyse the structure and dynamics of firms' behavioural mode changes and to identify the main innovation stages. In addition, elementary process specification provides an opportunity to determine the strategic choices of certain groups of companies during the considered time period. The innovation processes of Russian manufacturing firms are considered, depending on the degree of technology intensity and size class. As a result, it is established that maximum innovation activity is observed in a high-technology group of Russian enterprises. A decrease in the degree of technology intensity leads to a considerable reduction of innovation activity. The exception is the group of low-technology companies. The innovation creation process prevails in the group of high-technology firms, the combination of creation and modification strategies is prevalent in the medium-high technology group and the strategy of insignificant modification is foremost in the medium-low technology group. All abovementioned strategies are used in the low-technology group. It is also demonstrated that the innovation activities of the Russian firms increase with the size class, up to a class with 100 to 199 employees. After this level, growth in size negatively affects innovative activity. The dynamic structure of innovation processes in small Russian firms consists of the combination of creation, modification and diffusion processes. The dynamic structure of innovation processes in large Russian firms consists of a combination of modification and diffusion processes.