Performance of the Vologda oblast industry in the estimates provided by industrial enterprises managers

The study presents the results of a survey of the Vologda Oblast industrial enterprises managers. According to the annual monitoring of the industry performance having been conducted by the Federal State Budget Institution of Science “Vologda Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences” since 1993, the key issues and trends in the industry development have been identified. The current stage of the study was completed in the first half of 2020; the sample size was 375 enterprises representing all branches of the region’s industrial sector. 36 respondents actually participated in the survey. The low activity of participants is due to the fact that the period of restrictive measures against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic occurred at the time of the survey. The purpose of the study is to analyze the current state of the region’s industry, reveal the problems of functioning and main trends in economic development. The survey took into account the managers’ opinions on the main performance indicators of their organizations, investment and innovation activities, and relations with state institutions and executive authorities at the regional and federal levels. The research object is the region’s industrial enterprises; the subject is the results of their economic activity. The information base was made up by the data of questionnaire surveys and the works of domestic scientists dealing with the activation of the real sector of the economy and related problems. The novelty of the research consists in updating the current situation in the region’s industrial sector and highlighting its main problems in accordance with the opinions of industrial leaders. The results of the analysis revealed the enterprises’ low financial security which is required for the production processes development and modernization. The lack of state institutions’ attention to the specifics of industrial enterprises leads to the fact that the respondents rely mainly on their own resources to find ways for their companies to grow. The identified trends and problems can be taken into account by executive authorities to improve the methods and tools for managing the sustainable development of the region, as well as by science and education employees.