Readiness of small town entrepreneurs for participatory management of territorial development (case study of Nizhny Novgorod region)

The article is focused on theoretical and practical aspects of adaptation of participative management model to Russian conditions on the example of interaction of entrepreneurial community (small business) with local authorities in single-industry cities of Nizhny Novgorod region. The interaction between government and business is viewed through the prism of basic theoretical concepts (resource approach, theory of capital); the characteristics of the models of interaction between authorities and entrepreneurs that have developed in world practice are presented. Results of a sociological survey carried out by sociologists from National Research University named after N.I. Lobachevsky in the fall of 2022 are presented in this work. The aim of the study (using the method of focus groups) is to determine the readiness of entrepreneurs of small towns in the Nizhny Novgorod region for managing the development of the territory in partnership with local authorities using the participative model. It is concluded that the business communities of Gorodets and Semyonov are focused on interaction with the authorities, but on different models of implementation. It is emphasized that that there are signs of the formation of a collective actor with the potential to develop territories in the course of their participatory management.