Regional innovative potential as a factor of entrepreneurship development

The innovative potential of the regions is an essential factor in developing entrepreneurial activity in the socio-economic system. This may be due to the fact that one of the main functions of entrepreneurship is an innovative function; its implementation allows enterprises to signifi cantly increase the level of competitiveness. Despite the existence of studies containing theoretical conclusions about the relationship between the innovative potential of territories and entrepreneurship, there are not so many works containing data that confi rm this position empirically. The relevance of the work is also connected with the presence of controversial provisions regarding the theoretical and methodological aspects of the study (uncertainty about certain concepts, methods for assessing the innovative potential of regions, the lack of specifi c indications on the criteria that characterize the innovative function of entrepreneurship, etc.). The scientifi c novelty of the research is expressed in the systematization of approaches to the interpretation of innovative potential, in the justifi cation based on the analysis of the relationship between innovative potential and entrepreneurship. The purpose of the work is to assess the dependence of the entrepreneurship development on the regional innovative potential. Within the framework of the study, the authors use various theoretical and empirical methods including mathematical modeling. The article highlights the approaches to the interpretation of the concept of “innovative potential of the region”, analyzes the existing methods of assessing the innovative potential of the regions of the Russian Federation; identifi es the criteria characterizing the innovative function of entrepreneurship; and establishes a close relationship between the development level of the regional innovative potential and the entrepreneurship development level through correlation and regression analysis. The research can be continued in the direction of searching for other variables, the correlation and regression, analysis of which will allow making more accurate conclusions about their interdependence and interdependence.