This article presents the findings of the study on the role of innovative entrepreneurship in the regional economy. The analysis is based on the methodology developed by Hermann Simon, a German scientist who has coined the term ”hidden champions” describing the phenomenon of little-known successful companies that act as innovative growth engines in the German economy. Today, the economies in different countries are developing amid the ”new normal,” in which no expected recovery followed the global crisis of 2008. This makes it necessary to rethink the role of entrepreneurship during a prolonged recession. The authors proposed and tested the hypothesis that, in this environment, the economic growth in the country and the region is increasingly determined not so much by large businesses, but by many small innovative companies. To identify Russian ”hidden champions,” we studied more than 1247 companies listed in the Innovation and Investment Market, a specialized section of the Moscow Exchange, and included in the specialized Register of Business Entities that use nanotechnology. We identified specifically Russian features of innovative entrepreneurship related to national cultural and historical characteristics and the current policy of import substitution. The authors proposed their own method for assessing the innovative entrepreneurship as a source of economic growth in the Russian regions that defines five groups of innovative entrepreneurs (global market leader, one of the global market leaders, Russian market leader, one of the Russian market leaders, not the leader in the Russian market) and compares them with large companies in terms of turnover and profit dynamics. Based on such criteria as ”number of ”hidden champions” and ”number of large enterprises per 100 thousand organizations,” we built a model for the ratio of ”hidden champions” to major companies in the Russian regions that identifies, for each criterion, three subgroups, including leaders, medium-tier and outsiders, which allowed to identify nine types of Russian regions and substantiate different development strategies for main types of regions. The study confirms that the most justified strategy for the development of innovative entrepreneurship in the region is the strategy of cooperation between different types of companies in order to overcome their weaknesses, enhance existing opportunities and activate the innovation and entrepreneurial capacity.

The article substantiates the impact of the institutional factor on the development of regional international economic relations. The scope of the study is regional international economic activity (IEA), the subject- matter is the role of the institutional factor in its development. The study purpose is to develop a scientific approach for the assessment of the institutional factor impact on the development of region’s international economic relations. The hypothesis is that the targeted efforts of all participants of IEA of the region (business, authorities, local community) to strengthen of theese components of the institutional factor, which have a strong influence on the regional socio-economic development. A methodological approach for the assessment of this influenceis developed. It includes determining three elements of IEA institutionalization — agreements, organizations, events. A three-dimensional model is proposed for the coordination of these elements with 3 groups of countries — developed, developing and CIS, including the Eurasian Economic Union, and also with basic indexes characterizing the qualitative and quantitative contribution of region’s IEA into its socio-economic development. This model is tested on the example of the Sverdlovsk region of Russia for 2003–2015. That has allowed to define various kinds of the effects from strenthening the IEA institutional component, which are expressed in the increase of the export of the region, improvement of its investment attractiveness, the diversification of regional economy as well as the the generation of additional jobs and tax flows increase.

In the article, the authors propose the conceptual fundamentals of the “code approach” to the regional neo-industrial development. The purpose of the research is to reveal the essence of the transition to a new type of industrial and economic relations through a prism of “genetic codes” of the region. We consider these codes as a system of the “racial memory” of a territory, which determines the specificity and features of neo-industrialization realization. We substantiated the hypothesis about the influence of the “genetic codes” of the region on the effectiveness of the neo-industrialization. We have defined the participants, or else the carriers of the codes in the transformation of regional inheritance for the stimulation of the neoindustrial development of region’s economy. The subject matter of the research is the distinctive features of the functioning of the determinative region’s codes. Their content determines the socio-economic specificity of the region and the features of innovative, informational, value-based and competence-based development of the territory. The determinative codes generate the dynamic codes of the region, which are understood as their derivatives. They have a high probability of occurrence, higher speed of development and distribution, internal forces that make possible the self-development of the region. The scientific contribution is the substantiation of the basic code of the regional neo-industrial development. It represents the evolutionary accumulation of the rapid changes of its innovative, informational, value-based and competence-based codes stimulating the generation and implementation of new ideas regarding to economic entities adapted to the historical and cultural conditions. The article presents the code model of neo-industrial development of the region described by formulas. We applied the system analysis methods, historical and civilization approaches, evolutionary and institutional theory, economic and mathematical methods. Moreover, in the article, the authors presented the findings for the period 2011–2016 reflecting the empirical estimation of the importance of informational, institutional, innovative, value-based and competence-based codes. We made this estimation through the survey of population, representatives of business and authorities, students, as well as the professors of the leading universities of the Ural Federal District. The focus of the recommendations for the region is the acceleration of the transition to the new type of industrial development. The research results can be used when developing the programmes and projects of neo- and reindustrialization at both federal and regional levels.

In current geo-economic conditions, we need to consider the foreign economic factor as an instrument for structural changes, for the diversification of regional economy, as well as for the realization of a policy of import substitution, including exportoriented one. The article generalizes and systemizes preconditions and sources of the research of regional foreign economic activity in the works of the scientific school of the Institute of Economics of Ural Branch of RAS since the middle of the 1980s. The Institute was one of the first among the regional centres of the academic science of the country, which has addressed the foreign economic relations of a region. The purpose of the article is to systematize both the evolution of scientific definitions and the development of the Ural school of regional foreign economic research during the 30-years period. We apply the interdisciplinary approach and a broad range of methods: a historical method, an economic and statistical method, a comparative analysis, etc. The paper has systemized and characterized the research directions carried out by the staff of the Institute and in cooperation with Russian and Ural colleagues from other institutions. There are geo-economic shifts; international comparative research; regions’ involvement into global economic relations; realization of Ural export potential in terms of neo-industrialization and import substitution; international economic cooperation in the framework of SCO, BRICS, Eurasian Economic Union, etc. The Academician A. I. Tatarkin played an invaluable role as the Head of the Institute from 1990 to 2016. He initiated, facilitated and led many research directions. Thanks to this, the Institute of the Ural Branch of RAS over the years has being a kind of regional research-communicational platform, where scientists can search the mechanisms and tools for the realization of the foreign economic potential of the region with an account of national priorities. It underlines a high practical importance of the research in this sphere

The purpose of the research is to substantiate what kind of influence the import substitution has on the positioning of different types of regions in the system of international economic relations. The research is focused on two types of regions — the industrial type (the Sverdlovsk region) and the agricultural type (Rostov and Krasnodar regions). The research hypothesis is following: import substitution influences not only the replacement of imported goods by the domestic ones, but also can change regional positioning in the international economic relations system. The authors propose the methodological approach. It examines the regional economy according to three levels: a system of entities engaged in foreign economic activity; a system of the support of import substitution and export orientation in a region; a system of international economic relations. Regional positioning in the system of international economic relations is expressed in manufacture and agriculture exports and imports. Our methodological approach reveals the dependence between manufacture and agriculture exports and imports and the manufacturing and agriculture output, including correlation analysis. . We have offered a technique based on the comparative analysis of the effectiveness of import substitution in two regions’ types applying correlation analysis. The analysis has shown the interrelation of the development processes of domestic manufacturing and agriculture, their export and import in 2005– 2016. The import decrease and export increase (after 2014) were mainly due to regional specialization in international division of labour. This demonstrates the results of import substitution. The research results can be used for further development of the strategies of regional international economic activity including such instruments as import substitution and export promotion.

The article reveals the trends in foreign economic development of Russian and American pharmaceutical industry. The study aims to substantiate the trends of prevailing import dependence of Russian pharmaceutical sector and export orientation of American one. Moreover, we define the main directions of export in Russian pharmaceutical industry based on the development trends of world industry leaders. We focus on identifying what is the nature and how close is the relationship between the factors of business’ innovation and complexity, on the one hand, and increasing the sector’s export orientation, on the other hand. The research methodology is based on the domestic and foreign literature on foreign economic activity in pharmaceutical industry. Furthermore, the methods include the pharmaceutical industry assessment by international institutions (particularly, the World Economic Forum). We used the data from United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) statistics, American and Russian international ratings, and the results of analytical studies of innovation processes in bio-pharm-medical sector. We hypothesise that there is a correlation between the factors of business innovations and maturity, and the volume of pharmaceutical industry export. The correlation analysis has revealed the relation between innovation development and export growth, suggesting the export’s integration into the national strategy of pharmaceutical industry. The comparative analysis of the Russian and American pharmaceutical industries has demonstrated that the increase in the export-oriented products in Russian pharmaceutical industry will be determined by the degree of the integration of information technologies into all stages of research and pharmaceutical business. The developers and ideologists of national export strategy in pharmaceutical industry might implement the study’s conclusions and recommendations on federal and regional levels. Further scientific research should focus on substantiating ways to increase the pharmaceutical industry’s competitiveness, corresponding to the fundamental information, technological and personnel challenges of this industry development.

Due to rapid technological changes, there is a need to consider the digitalization of the economy as a global competition tool, especially in regards to non-resource export. The study examines the relationship between the total regional export of technological products and digitalization of the Russian economy. We hypothesise that the developing digitalization of business effectively increases the regional export of technological products. As the methodological basis, we focus on various theoretical approaches of foreign and Russian authors to assessing the digitalization impact on the development of national and regional economies. For assessing that impact, we created a model that evaluates the correlation between the export of technological products and probable impact factors, including an integrated digitalization index. The author’s typology of the Russian regions allowed identifying the differences in their digitalization processes. The research method is the regression analysis that includes the ordinary least squares method. We tested the research model on the data of Federal State Statistic Service and Federal Customs Service for 2018. As a result, we determined four types of regions and confirmed that digitalization is a driver of their economic development: the level of digitalization influences the global competitiveness of the regions, including high-tech exports. The model can be considered as a tool for analysing and predicting the development of technological export for 4 types of regions. For each type, we described possible development strategies, aimed at overcoming the limitations in technological export, taking into account the digitalization of business. Authorities and companies competing for new strategic markets can apply the research findings for developing and implementing the mechanisms and tools of digitalization in order to ensure the leadership of the regions in terms of technological export.