Sophia Khalimova (p)

Information technologies are extremely vital for modern economy; they are in the core of the sixth wave of innovations. None of the other high tech sectors has such an impact on all the spheres of economic activity. In this paper, we discuss the development of Russian IT sector.
One of the characteristics of Russian economy is high dependence on governmental economic discussions and the directions of governmental economic policy. The creation of digital economy is widely argued in Russia lately. Even though the meaning of the term “digital economy” concerning Russian case is disputed a lot, and even though state programs and documents leave much to be desired and a lot of work still needs to be done, including these questions in modern economic agenda means new opportunities for Russian IT companies. In this paper, we try to estimate whether IT companies can successfully accept this challenge today and what should be their role in digital economy.
Although information technologies are one of the leading sector in high tech business in the world economy, only 12% of Russian high tech companies work in IT sector. Nevertheless, there are a number of success stories of Russian IT companies, which are leaders in their niches and recognized worldwide. Using company data (obtained from SPARK database) we analyze regional differences in IT sector development. In terms of representation of various territories and inclusiveness of various regions in the sector development, it is shown that gap between regions is extremely wide, with Moscow being absolute leader. We also assess factors influencing the growth of IT companies in Russia; we include in the analysis both companies’ characteristics and indicators of the regional environment. Another question is to reveal barriers for the development of IT companies. Data on national level show that employment in IT sector is decreasing which indicates serious problems. In this regard turning to the company level is necessary to understand the nature of these problems.
Our dataset is micro level data and covers 2013-2016 time period, which allows us to use econometric analysis (including correlation analysis, regression analysis and panel data analysis) to confirm and substantiate our conclusions.

Olga Valieva (p)

The study examines the creation of global value chains in the biopharmaceutical sector of Russia in general and in Siberian companies in particular. Problems are studied at all stages of research, production and sales cycles. The degree of incorporation of Siberian biotechnology companies into global value chains is analyzed. Survey results showed that domestic companies are poorly embedded in global value chains. As a rule, in the markets of “red” biotechnologies it is the import of primary highly purified / low-purified substances, depending on the sphere of use in the final product and the export of high-tech services in the field of R & D. The weak link of our market in GVC is engineering and distribution. In the markets of "green" biotechnology, in which one can identify segments of genetic engineering (breeding new plant varieties, GM crops), biotechnologies for livestock and plant growing, high competitiveness and export potential have so far formed only in the market of biological plant protection products. However, the pace of growth is far behind the world. This gap is due to several factors: high supply of plant protection chemicals from global corporations, difficulties in registering their own developed drugs, limited financial resources, lack of government funding and support measures.

Martina Neuländtner (p), Thomas Scherngell

It is commonly acknowledged, that the creation of knowledge is the result of interactive, collaborative learning processes among organizations of different types located in different geographical spaces (regions). Especially, in a strongly knowledge-based economy built on fast-growing and R&D intensive technologies such as Key Enabling Technologies (KETs), collaborative knowledge creation is increasingly gaining importance to rapidly enable access to external, nation-wide and global new sources of knowledge. With the focus on technology-specific R&D collaboration networks in six different KETs, each representing different knowledge bases and modes of (collaborative) knowledge creation, we emphasize the determining role of technology-specific heterogeneities. The objective is to estimate determinants of these technology-specific R&D collaboration networks, with a special focus on spatial separation and network structural effects. We employ a spatially filtered negative binomial spatial interaction model with a set of 506 metropolitan and non-metropolitan regions to identify differences in the determinants of technological knowledge flows, proxied by EU-funded collaborative projects. The results show that the role of the determinants under consideration indeed differ across the inter-regional collaboration networks in the six KETs, not so much in terms of significance and direction, but in terms of their relative importance. Geographical barriers are significant, both regarding geographical distance and country border effects. Moreover, network structural effects are of high importance, but do not remove spatial effects in all KETs. Both spatial and network effects seem to be of higher relevance for more industrial and engineering based than more science based technological fields.

Lydia Lopez Bares (p), Kelyane Silva, Danilo S. Carvalho

The number of patent applications has been in a worldwide trend of growth in the recent decades, in response to policies that encourage the diffusion and transfer of technology. Such trend is linked to patterns in industrial, scientific and educational investment, with varying participation of the different groups in a globalized society. While there is a widespread effort into evaluating and improving the participation of groups recognized as minorities within state-of-the-art activities, research about women participation in the innovation sector is currently limited.
This work presents a study on the female involvement in patent applications in Ibero-American countries, with special attention to Brazil and Spain, in order to measure gender inequalities in institutional collaborations and technological fields. Our findings indicate there is still a long way to overcome gender inequality in Science, Technology and Innovation activities, but slow progress is being made, especially in Brazil and Portugal.

Ferhan Gezici (p), Burcu Müderrisoğlu, Güliz Salihoğlu, Gülay Başarır, Cemil Ceylan

In the global economy of the 21st century, innovation has become dominating activity for competition among the cities and regions. Literature on innovation and regional development has long been discussed on to what extent geography and proximity between different agents matters for innovation, since it is known that innovation is not a linear process, but more complex. Therefore it is especially a process of cooperation and collaboration not only among the firms, but research institutions, government and other local stakeholders as well. Meanwhile techno-parks have established based on the triple helix approach enhancing the role of universities for knowledge spillovers and spin-offs. While collaboration among the firms and universities for R&D have a positive impact on innovation, it is also identified as one of the success criteria for techno-parks.

Consequently, types of collaboration and main determinants to explore the process have long been interesting research topics.The studies of Bjorke and Johnnson (2015) and Howels and Bressant (2012) try to explore the types and determinants of collaborations among actors for innovation. Empirical studies from different countries highlight the importance of proximity for collaboration, whereas firms within the same techno-park would have more chance to do it, not only with other firms but the university as well. Furthermore firms would get benefits of university in order to access external linkages and knowledge. According to Temel et al. (2013), the most important methods in establishing university-industry collaboration are; common R & D, spin-offs and informal relationships. Firm type is also significant to realize the actors which are involved innovation process. While the small firms have generally been neglecting, findings of researches put forward that large firms have stronger ties with the university. In addition to this, the spin-offs may provide knowledge spillovers from the university.

This paper aims to explore the types and determinants of collaboration in technoparks. Since technoparks have been considered as important tool for innovation policy of Turkey and the number of technoparks has been increasing continously, the findings of the research would provide insights for the policy implications. Two technoparks (Mersin and Erciyes) which are among the first ten high rank ones are selected for the purpose of our research. Survey is conducted with both the firms and academicians from university to explore the main motivations for different types of collaboration mainly with university, among the firms within technoparks and the other actors out of technopark.