Technology Entrepreneurship in the Russian Regions: Educational and Geographical Paths of Start-up Founders
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17059/2020-2-7Keywords:
technology entrepreneurship, start-up, universities, education, regional economy, technological development, investments, online platforms, business education, technical educationAbstract
Technology entrepreneurship is one of key research areas in the modern economy as fast-growing companies significantly contribute to the economic growth of the regions and Russia in general. Identifying factors influencing the emergence and success of start-ups could give the tools to support and stimulate entrepreneurship in this field. In this research, we collected and analysed data on technological start-ups founded in the past decade. We focused on identifying global start-ups, in which at least one of the founders was educated in Russia. The final sample includes more than 1000 start-ups of Russian origin. During the study, we discovered the main trends in the educational, geographical and sectorial paths of start-up founders. We hypothesise that the promotion of technical education in the regions, and the use of information technologies in business play a significant role in the development of technology entrepreneurship. The econometric analysis allowed us to determine regional factors influencing the emergence of successful start-ups in the region, as well as regional factors affecting the intention to establish a technology start-up in a country or a region differing from the place where they had obtained education. In the regions close to Moscow and relatively developed regions, the level of salaries for programmers is of significance. An entrepreneur’s desire to change a region or a country can be affected by the level of inventive activity in a region, the number of students of mathematical specialties, the distance to Moscow. Future studies can focus on a country analysis of the success factors of technology start-ups, an analysis of the world’s most attractive entrepreneurial start-up ecosystems, and the place of Russian technology entrepreneurs on the map of successful global start-ups.
References
Adler, P., Florida, R., King, K. & Mellander, C. (2019). The city and high-tech startups: The spatial organization of Schumpeterian entrepreneurship. Cities, 87, 121–130. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2018.12.013
Aidis, R., Estrin, S. & Mickiewicz, T. (2008). Institutions and entrepreneurship development in Russia: A comparative perspective. Journal of Business Venturing, 23(6), 656–672. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2008.01.005.
Audretsch, D. B. (2012). From the entrepreneurial university to the university for the entrepreneurial society. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 39(3), 313–321. DOI: 10.1007/s10961–012–9288–1.
Bercovitz, J. & Feldman, M. (2005). Entpreprenerial Universities and Technology Transfer: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Knowledge-Based Economic Development. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 31(1), 175–188. DOI: 10.1007/s10961–005–5029-z.
Carree, M. A. & Thurik, A. R. (2010). The Impact of Entrepreneurship on Economic Growth. In: Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research (pp. 557–594). Springer, New York. DOI: 10.1007/978–1–4419–1191–9_20.
Chepurenko, A., Popovskaya, E. & Obraztsova, O. (2017). Cross-regional variations in the motivation of early-stage entrepreneurial activity in Russia: determining factors. In: A. Sauka, A. Chepurenko (Eds.), Entrepreneurship in Transition Economies (pp. 315–342). Springer, Cham. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978–3–319–57342–7_18.
Colombo, M. G. & Grilli, L. (2005). Founders’ human capital and the growth of new technology-based firms: A competence-based view. Research Policy, 34(6), 795–816. DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2005.03.010.
Dahlstrand, Å. L. (2007). Technology‐based entrepreneurship and regional development: the case of Sweden. European Business Review, 19(5), 373–386. DOI: 10.1108/09555340710818969.
Desai, S. & Motoyama, Y. (2015). The regional environment: Indianapolis-insights from high-growth companies. Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, 24.
Ferraris, A., Belyaeva, Z. & Bresciani, S. (2018). The role of universities in the Smart City innovation: Multistakeholder integration and engagement perspectives. Journal of Business Research. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.12.010.
Fritsch, M. & Storey, D. J. (2014) Entrepreneurship in a Regional Context: Historical Roots, Recent Developments and Future Challenges. Regional Studies: The Journal of the Regional Studies Association, 48(6), 939–954. DOI: https://doi. org/10.4324/9781315691985–1.
Galindo, M.-Á. & Méndez, M. T. (2014). Entrepreneurship, economic growth, and innovation: Are feedback effects at work? Journal of Business Research, 67(5), 825–829. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.11.052.
Guerrero, M., Urbano, D., Cunningham, J. A. & Gajón, E. (2017). Determinants of Graduates’ Start-Ups Creation across a Multi-Campus Entrepreneurial University: The Case of Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education. Journal of Small Business Management, 56(1), 150–178. DOI: 10.1111/jsbm.12366.
Guerrero, M. & Urbano, D. (2010). The development of an entrepreneurial university. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 37(1), 43–74. DOI: 10.1007/s10961–010–9171-x.
Hayter, C. S. (2013). Harnessing University Entrepreneurship for Economic Growth: Factors of Success among University Spin-offs. Economic Development Quarterly, 27(1), 18–28. DOI: 10.1177/0891242412471845.
Hayton, J. C. (2005). Competing in the new economy: the effect of intellectual capital on corporate entrepreneurship in high-technology new ventures. R & D Management, 35(2), 137–155. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467–9310.2005.00379.x.
Hynes, B. & Richardson, I. (2007). Entrepreneurship education: A mechanism for engaging and exchanging with the small business sector. Education + Training, 49(8/9), 732–744. DOI: 10.1108/00400910710834120.
Klofsten, M., Fayolle, A., Guerrero, M., Mian, S., Urbano, D. & Wright, M. (2018). The entrepreneurial university as driver for economic growth and social change — Key strategic challenges. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 141, 149–158. DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2018.12.004.
Laukkanen, M. (2000). Exploring alternative approaches in high-level entrepreneurship education: creating micromechanisms for endogenous regional growth. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 12(1), 25–47. DOI: 10.1080/089856200283072.
Lawton Smith, H., Glasson, J., Romeo, S., Waters, R. & Chadwick, A. (2013). Entrepreneurial regions: Evidence from Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire. Social Science Information, 52(4), 653–673. DOI: 10.1177/0539018413499978.
Mian, S. A. (Ed.). (2011). Science and Technology Based Regional Entrepreneurship: Global Experience in Policy and Program Development. Edward Elgar Publishing, 477.
Nissan, E., Galindo Martín, M.-Á. & Méndez Picazo, M.-T. (2011). Relationship between organizations, institutions, entrepreneurship and economic growth process. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 7(3), 311–324. DOI: 10.1007/s11365–011–0191–2.
Ojala, A. & Isomäki, H. (2011). Entrepreneurship and small businesses in Russia: a review of empirical re- search. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 18(1), 97–119. DOI: 10.1108/14626001111106451.
Samila, S. & Sorenson, O. (2011). Venture capital, entrepreneurship, and economic growth. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 93(1), 338–349.
Secundo, G., Vecchio, P. D. & Passiante, G. (2015). Creating innovative entrepreneurial mindsets as a lever for knowl- edge-based regional development. International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development, 6(4), 276–298. DOI: 10.1504/ ijkbd.2015.074301.
Szerb, L. & Trumbull, W. N. (2018). Entrepreneurship development in Russia: is Russia a normal country? An empirical analysis. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 25, 902–929. DOI: 10.1108/jsbed-01–2018–0033.
Swamidass, P. M. (2012). University startups as a commercialization alternative: lessons from three contrasting case studies. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 38(6), 788–808. DOI: 10.1007/s10961–012–9267–6.
Teixeira, A. A. C. & Ferreira, C. (2018). Intellectual property rights and the competitiveness of academic spinoffs. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 4(3), 154–161. DOI: 10.1016/j.jik.2018.12.002.
Wright, M., Birley, S. & Mosey, S. (2004). Entrepreneurship and University Technology Transfer. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 29(3/4), 235–246. DOI: 10.1023/b:jott.0000034121.02507.f3.
Yukhanaev, A., Fallon, G., Baranchenko, Y. & Anisimova, A. (2015). An Investigation into the Formal Institutional Constraints that Restrict Entrepreneurship and SME Growth in Russia. Journal of East-West Business, 21(4), 313–341. DOI: 10.1080/10669868.2015.1092190.
Zemtsov S., Muradov A., Wade I. & Barinova V. (2016). Determinants of Regional Innovation in Russia: are people or capital more important? Forsait [Foresight], 2(10), 29–42. DOI: https://doi.org/0.17323/1995–459X.2016.2.29.42.
Barinova, V., Eremkin, V. & Zemtsov, S. (2015). Faktory razvitiya innovatsionnykh kompaniy na rannikh stadi- yakh [Factors of Innovative Companies Development at Early Stages]. Gosudarstvennoe upravlenie. Elektronnyy vestnik [E-journal. Public Administration], 49, 27–51. (In Russ.)
Bortnik, I. M., Barinova, V. A., Zemtsov, S. P., Infimovskaya, S. Y. & Sorokina, A. V. (2015). Analiz faktorov konkuren- tosposobnosti otechestvennykh vysokotekhnologichnykh kompaniy [An empirical analysis of the domestic fast growing high-tech companies’ competitiveness]. Innovatsii [Innovations], 3(197), 25–31. (In Russ.)
Glukhikh, P. L., Myslyakova, Yu. G., Malysheva & E. V. & Krasnykh, S. S. (2018). Vzaimosvyaz eksportnogo potentsiala regiona i startap-dvizheniya molodezhi [The Relationship of the Region’s Export Potential and the Start-Up Movement of the Youth]. Ekonomika regiona [Economy of Region], 14(4), 1512–1525. (In Russ.)
Verkhovskaya, O., Aleksandrova, E., Bogatyreva, K., Dzhelepova, M. & Shmeleva, E. (2017). Natsionalnyy otchet «Globalnyy monitoring predprinimatelstva. Rossiya 2016/2017» [Global Entrepreneurship Monitor: Russia 2016/2017: report]. Graduate School of Management, SPbGU, 66. (In Russ.)
Kazaryan, K. (Ed.). (2019). Tsifrovye gorizonty: Ekosistema IT-predprinimatelstva i startapov v Rossii [Digital horizons: Russian tech entrepreneurial & startups ecosystem research]. The Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC), Google, OC&C Consulting, 62. (In Russ.)
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 D.E. Tolmachev, K.V. Chukavina
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
