Investment and innovation activity of the industry in the northern regions of Russia

For the modernization of economy the proper regulation of innovation and investment activity is very important, because without each other these processes do not give harmonious economic development. There is a special need in studying these relationships in the northern regions of Russia due to the growing geopolitical and economic importance of these territories and the great spatial and sectoral nonuniformity of their development. The sphere of industrial production as a place of the highest concentration of technological innovations and financial resources is of the greatest interest.The aim of the research was coupled estimation of innovative and investment activity of the industry in northern regions of Russia. The research was conducted by multidimensional classification of regions by the method of hierarchical cluster analysis on indicators of scientific, innovative and investment activities which were selected through factor analysis.Three stable groups of northern regions of Russia are revealed: "leaders in innovations", "leaders in investments","medium in investments and innovations".Disharmony of the studied phenomenon is shown: in most cases the investment processes lack adequate innovation component due to weak incentives, and the innovation potential is not fully used due to insufficient financing, the main reason being stagnation of the manufacturing industry and disproportionate development of the extracting industries.It is shown that the industry of the North of Russia has rather high potential of innovation and investment activity, however the intensification of its use and the essential alignment on regions and branches, particularly the support of manufacturing activities is required.The research results can be used in analytical and administrative work of the regional and federal authorities, as well as in the business plans of enterprises. The methodical approach can be applied to the analysis at the level of other macroregions of Russia or the whole country.