Developing a Typology of Regions Based on Their Predisposition to Scientific and Technological Development

Abstract

Aim. The presented study aims to describe the proposed typology of regions based on their predisposition to scientific and technological development in the context of hereditary industrial, social, and institutional determinants of economic territorial development. Tasks. The authors develop a methodological approach to forming a basic criterion for the classification of regions; develop a methodology for the classification of regions based on their predisposition to scientific and technological development with allowance for the economic impact of their hereditary core; test the authors’ developments on the regions of the Russian Federation. Methods. This study uses tools for modeling the hereditary socio-economic core of regions based on the calculation of Frobenius norms to identify the prevailing dynamic trends in territorial development, and a matrix method for developing a regional typology. The methodology applied by the authors focuses on identifying territories that are more susceptible to technological transformations, including those that ensure the significant impact of these transformations on the national economy. Results. The study tests the authors’ developments on Russian regions and provides two typologies. The first typology groups regions according to criteria such as stable positive predisposition, permissible positive predisposition, negative predisposition, and stable negative predisposition to scientific and technological development. The second typology identifies regions with hereditary capital, regions with useful heredity, regions with defective useful heredity, regions with the effect of a large hereditary base, regions with defective heredity, and regions with significant defective heredity. The developed typologies make it possible to identify regions that serve as the opposite poles of scientific and technological transformations as well as high-risk regions with unjustified investment in innovative economic activities. Conclusions. Industrially developed regions are more predisposed to scientifific and technological development, and expansion of innovations will be implemented faster in these regions compared with others. The Sverdlovsk and Tyumen regions have an elastic industrial heritage, which is manifested in the successful implementation of a wide range of innovative tasks. Comparative analysis also shows that the Ural Federal District has the most favorable industrial, social, and institutional hereditary determinants responsible for the susceptibility of the territory to technological transformations compared with other regions, which makes it a potential center for the scientific and technological development of the national economy.