TECHNOLOGICAL OPTIMUM OF INNOVATION PROCESSES AT RUSSIAN ENTERPRISES
A theoretical model of the innovation function that describes the dependence of innovative products on the cost of product innovation is proposed. This model has changing areas of decreasing and increasing return. There are two critical features of this function: the point of reaching its maximum and the point of technological optimum where the average and marginal innovative products are equal. Three groups of size classes that locally implemented this model were identified. The first group included enterprises with up to 499 employees, the second group - from 500 to 4,999 people. The third group consists of the two largest size classes with 5000-9999 and more than 10,000 employers. For the first two groups of size classes, as a result of calculations, two points of technological optimum were obtained; in the third group of the largest enterprises, the technological optimum is not achieved. It turned out that the greatest technological maximum belongs to the second group of enterprises and is located near the size class with 1000-4999 employers. It is 60% higher than the same indicator for small and medium-sized enterprises and by 25% higher than for the class with 5,000-9,999 employers from the third group of enterprises. The unattainability of the technological optimum for the largest enterprises is possibly related to the diffusion orientation of their innovative activities.