Russian High Tech Companies: Growth Factors and Limitations

The competitiveness of modern economy is determined mainly by the high-technology business activities Case of Russian economy is under discussion. The paper is concentrated on the revealing and estimation the factors of growth of the companies operating in knowledge-intensive services and high-tech manufacturing sector of national economy. The empirical part is based on data provided by Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) arranged by the World Bank. Dynamics of employees' number during three years was chosen as an explaining variable. Such approach is quiet common. Internal determinants were presented by factors related to innovative capacities, human capital, resource conditions and financial limitations. Company's age and ownership structure were taken into account also. A two-step assessment procedure was applied in order to determine and estimate the factors of growth. Significant factors were selected with the help of best subsets regression and then these factors were further analyzed using OLS. Results revealed that company's age has negative influence to its growth in both analyzed sectors; another common factor which has positive influence is presented by highly educated employees' share. Share of dominating owner and credit application turned to be positively significant for knowledge intensive services. Government subsidies and equipment purchase positively influence on manufacturing companies' growth.