The Russian corporation: patterns of behavior during the crisis

This paper considers the behavior patterns of Russian firms before and during the financial crisis of 2008-2009. To facilitate comparison, we define three main groups of actors at the firm level in the Russian economy – large, politically connected companies; mid-size firms that expanded in the 2000s with the help of administrative support, and successful mid-size firms driven by market factors. Many of the large companies practiced highly risky financial policy and experienced a decrease in efficiency before the crisis, and the managers and owners of some Russian firms have been engaging in opportunistic behavior during the crisis; the forms and causes of this behavior are analyzed here. We conclude by proposing some policy implications with emphasis on supporting successful mid-size firms driven by market factors

An Assessment of Policy Measures to Support Russia's Real Economy

"This paper presents the results of an analytical project on the design and approbation of methodology for assessing and monitoring the measures taken by the government of the Russian Federation in response to the recent worldwide fiscal crisis. The paper is based on our analysis of about 100 measures initiated between October 2008 and March 2009 to support Russia's real economy. Within the scope of this analysis, we singled out the main beneficiaries according to industry and enterprise scale, and estimated the effects of the measures during the crisis and recovery phases. The paper also describes the major risks the Russian government will face as a result of implementing the aforementioned measures and identifies the key problems and inconsistencies of the anti-crisis programme." (author's abstract

Cooperation between Russian research organizations and industrial companies: factors and problems

The study is focused on the cooperation of Russian companies with research organizations in implementing R&D projects during technological innovation. Taking into account behavioral changes, authors carry out a micro-level analysis based on empirical data of executive survey of over 600 Russian industrial firms (2011—2012) and about 350 research organizations and universities (2012). The authors emphasize the key factors of firms’ demand for outsourcing R&D reveal the main barriers to the development of university-industry cooperation and their particularities for different cooperation actors. The analysis shows that there is a positive relation between the size of a company and R&D outsourcing. As for the factor of age, the highest cooperation activity of Russian firms is observed among enterprises founded over 20 years ago. As far as concernes cooperation activity of research organizations, large ones are significantly more likely to cooperate with business. A common prerequisite for research organizations' R&D cooperation with business is sufficient academic ranking. Business and science evaluate differently various obstacles to effective cooperation. For firms, the main problems are the inflated costs of national R&Ds, insufficient research organizations’ orientation at company needs, and low quality of developments. As for representatives of research organizations, they mention as barriers primarily the lack of companies' receptivity to innovation and inadequate information about promising developments. Businesses are more optimistic about cooperation with science if they already have a relevant experience of interaction. In the case of research organizations we observe a different pattern: most problems seem more significant to organizations conducting R&D in business interests