Empirical Analysis of Innovative Development of Regions of the South of Russia

This article presents an empirical study of the innovative development of regions in the South of Russia. Theoretically, the study demonstrates that innovation serves as a primary driver of economic growth in the modern economy, which is characterized by high instability of operating conditions, intense competition, and growing environmental challenges. Consequently, it is advisable to develop innovation policy and mechanisms to stimulate innovation at the regional level. This task requires assessing the current state and trends in the innovation sphere of the country’s regions. In this study, such an assessment is made for the Southern Federal District using three sets of indicators: innovation activity, innovation funding, and innovation outcomes. The analysis employs descriptive statistics and clustering methods. The results reveal that the Southern Federal District lags behind other macro-regions of Russia in most indicators (with the exception of organizational innovation activity). This is largely attributed to the fact that positive values and trends in leading regions such as the Rostov region and Krasnodar Krai are offset by low performance in other regions ranking at the bottom of the Russian Federation’s innovative development rating. Based on these results, the study comes to the conclusion that lagging regions need new ways to boost innovation because the current system of institutions and support tools did not produce appreciable benefits. In addition, it is advisable to adapt innovation policy as a whole to the specific level of innovation development in the regions of the South of Russia, taking into account the achieved results and the high differentiation of the subjects of the southern macroregion in terms of indicators of innovation activity. Authors’ contribution. A.Yu. Nikitaeva – formulation of the purpose, concept, and methodology of research; analysis of theoretical sources; formulation of conclusions about the level of innovative development of the regions of the South of Russia and the macroregion as a whole. A.E. Novikova – empirical analysis implementation; data collection and systematization on the aspects under analysis of innovative development of the regions of the South of Russia, statistical analysis, visualization of research results, interpretation of results, and formulation of conclusions.