Russia's innovation policy: Stubborn path-dependencies and new approaches

For the last twenty years Russia has been struggling to turn itself into an efficient market economy. Innovation and technological development are considered to be one of the best ways to achieve impressive results. The country has succeeded in retaining certain strengths of the Soviet science and technology system but it has often failed to address the former weaknesses and emerging challenges. There are a number of external and internal factors that make reforms inevitable and urgent. In the last five–six years the political leadership has started an unprecedented attempt to reverse the negative trends and boost Russia's innovation performance. This paper studies the new policy approaches and suggests several others that might be considered useful at this stage of the country's development. This work contributes to the wider debate on the heterogeneity of national innovation systems and adaptation of the respective analytical approach to the study of technological development of the emerging economies. It also provides a detailed review of the literature and data sources on the Russian science and technology, and aims to start filling in the gap in this seriously understudied research area.

► Many strengths and weaknesses of the Soviet S&T system remain in Russia despite massive reforms.
► Young scientists, middle class and entrepreneurs urge for structural reform.
► The national leadership recognizes the main challenges but often fails to address them.
► Existing theories help to analyze Russia's case but some assumptions have to be re-examined.
► Recommendations are suggested to further improve Russia's innovation policy.