Assessment of small and medium-sized enterprise development at the regional level

In the current context, there is a growing need to assess the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, particularly regarding their contribution to ensuring the country's technological sovereignty. Such an assessment is essential for identifying reserves for regional development and formulating informed management decisions aimed at enhancing economic resilience amidst external challenges. The scientific problem addressed in this study stems from the need to bridge the methodological gap between existing approaches to assessing SME development (which do not fully account for the specific properties of SMEs that influence their potential in this area) and diagnostics of the level of regional technological sovereignty (which often overlook the role of the SME sector as a factor in its reinforcement). The aim of the work is to conduct a comprehensive assessment of SME development at the regional level as a component of the economic environment capable of contributing to the strengthening of state technological independence. Achieving this aim required elucidating the theoretical and methodological foundations and formulating assessment principles, as well as developing and testing a methodological toolkit using empirical data from the constituent entities of the Northwestern Federal District. Various types and combinations of scientific methods were employed in preparing the study, ranging from general scientific to specialized economic methods. A particular place is occupied by methods of economic sociology – a targeted expert survey and interviews – which made it possible to form an information array that served as the basis for testing the developed methodological toolkit. The approbation of the author's toolkit made it possible to compile a ranking of regions by the level of innovative activity of SMEs (this ranking is of particular significance since innovative activity is fundamental in the context of the task of strengthening technological sovereignty); identify the factors and directions through which small and medium-sized enterprises in regions with a relatively low level of SME innovative activity can contribute to ensuring technological sovereignty; assess the level of adaptation of small and medium-sized enterprises to conditions of constant changes in the external environment; and forecast the possibility of achieving partial technological sovereignty, including through the contribution of regional small and medium-sized enterprises.