Victoria Golikova (p), Fernanda Ricotta , Boris Kuznetsov

The main objective of the paper is to analyse the impact CEO demographic characteristics on the firm innovative performance and to test if there are differences in the case of family owned firms in mature and transition economies. We found that the age of CEOs demonstrate the same negative effect among family firms both in Europe and Russia where the firms with CEOs who are more than 65 years old are less innovative being compared with young peers less than 34 years old. CEOs gender is a significant factor that impacts the probability to innovate only for European firms (both family and non-family) and not for Russia. For EU sample huge country heterogeneity is worth to mention and worst innovative performance of firms with female CEOs.
We use two measures of firm innovation performance: the probability to implement product and process innovations. A bivariate probit model with standard errors clustered by regions (NUTS1 for European countries and federal okrugs for Russia) has been estimated to take into account the possibility that firms can engage simultaneously in both types of innovation. The empirical model relates the probability to innovate to the age and gender of CEO. The other firm characteristics selected in accordance with the previous literature are: size measured as number of employees, age of the firm, family business status, R&D expenses proxied by the share of employees involved in R&D activities, human capital as a share of firm employees with high education, group membership, export and import status. Sector, country and regional dummies are inserted to control, respectively, for the industry heterogeneity, country and regional territorial effects. The model is estimated for total samples of 7 European countries and Russia and for subsamples of family vs non-family firms.
We use two databases that share a comparable survey design - RUFIGE, collects the survey data of 1950 Russian manufacturing firms with more than 10 employees conducted in 2014 and the EU-EFIGE/Bruegel-UniCredit dataset contains data of 14500 firms of the similar size and industries from a survey carried out in 2010 in seven European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom). Data cover small, medium and large firms, both private and publicly listed. Both surveys report the information regarding the age of CEO: in years in the case of RUFIGE and as a categorical variable in EFIGE database. Survey data contains information about family firms based on self-identification.

Elena Goosen (p), Sergey Nikitenko (p), Maria Mesjats, Konstantin Goosen

NEW "SMART ENTREPRENEUR" FOR A SMART RESILIENT RESOURCE REGION
The mineral and raw materials complex of Russia is a key element of the world resource and raw materials base and is of decisive importance for the social and economic development of Russia as a whole and its resource regions in particular. The concentration of large reserves of mineral resources in the territory of the regions is both a source of welfare growth and the cause of many problems of their development. Resource orientation provides regions with high growth rates, high level of incomes of the population, but it limits the opportunities for development of other industries, strengthens disintegration processes, and leads to their unresilience.
At present, Russia’s resource regions are looking for a new smart resilient model of development, based on innovation. The key actor of this model should be a special Smart Entrepreneur-Gatherer aimed at finding, creating and combining special capabilities of resources and firms localized on the territory of the concrete resource region. Today there are no such ready-made entrepreneurs in the Russian resource regions. The purpose of this study is to search for their sprouts and the way of their cultivation using mechanisms of public-private partnership from bottom-up.
The research is based on the model of «enclave dual economy» J. Stiglitz and the concept of Smart Specialization by D.Forey, P.David, B. Hall. Kemerovo region (Kuzbass) acted as an object of analysis.
The first part of the report presents an analysis of technological chains and value chains of the largest coal mining companies located in the region. The second part describes the model Smart Entrepreneur-Gatherer and the form of his "cultivation" within the framework of innovative public-private partnership projects (PPPs). The third part is devoted to analyzing the best practices of implementing such PPP projects in the territory of the Kemerovo region
The report was prepared with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation the project № 16-18-10182, «Formation of organizational and economic mechanisms for the integrated development of subsurface resources in resource-based regions on the basis of partnership between science, government and business») and the Federal Target Program «Research and Development for Priority directions of development of the scientific and technological complex of Russia for 2014-2020», the theme: «Development of technology for the effective development of coal deposits by a robotic complex with controlled release of subcrustation», agreement № 14.604.21.0173 from 26.09.2017.

Ronen Harel (p), Dafna Schwartz (p), Dan Kaufmann

The study findings show that the utilization of open innovation (OI) tools is effective in promoting innovation in small businesses. The study differentiated between OI tools aimed at acquiring knowledge in a unidirectional manner from external open sources of information such as Internet searches for professional information or attending professional conferences, and OI tools aimed at obtaining knowledge by interacting with other factors in the business ecosystem.
Interestingly, it was found that utilization of unidirectional OI tools contributes more to the level of product innovation, while utilization of networking and external collaboration contributes more to levels of process and marketing innovation, respectively. In addition, the study clarified that these businesses maintain connections to promote innovation mainly with entities in their closest business environment, based on commercial relationships with their suppliers and customers.
The empirical study was conducted through face-to-face interviews on a sample of 202 small businesses in the industry and craft sectors.
The theoretical contribution of the research stems from its focus on a group of businesses that has rarely been the focus of studies on innovation. The use of face-to-face interviews as a research tool facilitated the attainment of knowledge that is generally not readily accessible. The study may contribute in a practical manner to assisting small businesses in the development and implementation of appropriate OI tools for promoting innovation and enable them to reach beyond their closest business environment.

Olubunmi Ipinnaiye (p)

This paper investigates the relationship between innovative activity and firm size in a developing country context. Using data from the World Bank Enterprise survey for 1,150 firms in Nigeria, the study addresses two critical questions: What factors foster or hinder innovative activity in micro-sized firms (firms with fewer than ten employees)? To what extent do the drivers of innovative activity vary with innovation type? Many studies have shown that increased innovative activity is associated with higher productivity and economic growth, Despite the significant economic contribution of micro-sized firms - accounting for 99 per cent of active firms in Nigeria, and 93 per cent in the European Union, and employing 84 per cent of total labour force in Nigeria, innovative activity in this category of firms remains a grossly under-researched topic. Our logistic regression estimation results indicate that the likelihood of innovative activity in micro-sized firms is enhanced by firm characteristics (firm size and age), owner characteristics (education, previous experience), firm strategy (exporting, licensing of foreign technology) and regional factors (location within an urban centre, industrial park or export processing zone). The specific effect of these determinants, however, depends largely on the type of innovation being considered. This paper contributes to the innovation literature by providing much needed empirical evidence on the nature of innovative activity in micro-sized firms, particularly within a developing country context. Insights gained from this analysis are relevant in informing policies aimed at promoting innovative activity in micro-sized firms and creating framework conditions for sustainable economic growth.