Social demand of Russians for innovation (according to a sample survey)

This article was supported by the Russian Foundation for the Humanities under the grant “Innovations in modern Russia: development trends and impact on the standard of living of the population” (project 16-02-00561).The population’s choice of values in the use of digital technologies depends on a whole range of factors, including economic, political, social, cultural, and psychological ones. Is the attitude of the respondents to the innovation-driven changes in their lives the same? If it is so, then what factors determine the choice of a particular behavioral pattern in terms of using innovative products and services? This article provides the data of a survey designed to analyze the social characteristics of respondents depending on their attitude to innovative products. The results of a sample survey carried out by the authors in the spring of 2017 in Moscow and the Moscow Oblast were used as an information basis. The surveyed sample comprised 1,115 individuals aged 15 to 86 years, including 55.5% of women and 44.5% of men, which generally corresponds to the age and gender structure of the population in the regions surveyed. The survey was designed to eliminate to some extent the lack of quantitative data supporting the hypotheses about the impact of innovation on the way and quality of life of the Russian population, identify the areas of using innovations, which are the most promising from the point of view of the population, and also identify a group of respondents who are most susceptible to new information technologies. The survey results will help understand the innovative transformations in Russia, assess the demands of the population for, and its satisfaction with, innovative products and services, and determine the prospects for their dissemination. An application of the classification trees method allowed us to identify the main factors that influence innovation activity of Russians: the attitude toward innovation, the experience of using online educational services, and people’s age. Perspectives of the research consist in the definition of integrative indicators of innovation activity of the population on the basis of qualitative characteristics and the application of statistical modeling methods.