The impact of innovative activity of small business on regional economic growth
The economic arguments of the importance of the contribution to the total volume of innovation and growth are the basis for the development of various programs of subsidizing small business. From an empirical point of view, this logical construction as a whole is not in doubt. However, each economic system has its own peculiarities of certain processes, which are determined by a variety of environmental factors. In this article we try to investigate how in the modern Russian reality small business and its innovative activity actually affect the volume of the regional economy and its growth. In General, our results show that there is a significant bias between the actual and expected level of importance of the small business sector for the region's economy. A significant factor determining the value of the gross regional product is only the turnover of small enterprises, and the increase in the number of small enterprises and the amount of their investment in fixed capital, on the contrary, leads to a decrease in the gross regional product. The study of innovation activity allows us to conclude that regional economic growth depends on the share of small enterprises that have implemented technological innovations and the cost of technological innovations of small enterprises with a high degree of probability. However, the growth in the volume and share of innovative goods in General is not accompanied by economic growth, which indicates, among other things, an unsatisfactory level of efficiency of innovation costs for small businesses. The effectiveness of the regional economy depends on the total efficiency of all its economic entities. And it is important here not to increase quantitative indicators, but to ensure the productivity of small business and its contribution to the gross regional product in relative terms at a level not lower than the average and large.