Analyzing business activity from the perspective of incentives and barriers

The article considers entrepreneurship as a driver of economic development that infl uences transformations. We highlight problems arising due to the insuffi cient level of development of entrepreneurship in Russia as compared to that in Europe, and also due to regional diff erences caused by socio-economic and institutional aspects. The research is aimed at identifying the incentives and barriers that infl uence the successful start of entrepreneurial activity, its progress and development. The paper structures the factors aff ecting entrepreneurship, taking into account their scope (special attention is paid to institutional, socio-cultural and psychological factors) and the nature of the infl uence (positive and negative). We use socio-cognitive theory, general scientifi c research methods and data from the federal and regional levels to analyze entrepreneurship from the standpoint of incentives and barriers affecting it. We show that representatives of the business environment tend to give satisfactory assessments of the current state of business and cautious forecasts regarding its development. We conclude that the assessments of the current state and prospects of development depend on the size of the organization, duration of its functioning in the market, and on the risks of doing business due to changes in the market situation, demand, and people’s purchasing power. We emphasize the role of institutional aspects caused by changes in legislation and the judicial system. At the regional level, the propensity to entrepreneurship is infl uenced by fi nancial aspects, the tax system and the tax burden, the fact whether an individual has a long-term plan for the development of their business, as well as special type of character and abilities to manage an enterprise. As a practical signifi cance of the study, we note the need for system-wide integration of measures to support entrepreneurship, information, legal support of projects implemented by entrepreneurs, synchronization of information fl ows and achieving consistency between priorities and strategic goals.