ISSN 0798 1015

Vol. 38 (Nº 33) Año 2017. Pág. 16

Instruments to assess efficiency of implementation of the strategy of scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation

Instrumentos para evaluar la eficacia de la aplicación de la estrategia de desarrollo científico y tecnológico de la Federación de Rusia

Alexander Emelyanovich MILLER 1; Sergey Valentinovich KUZNETSOV 2; Yulia Ivanovna RASTOVA 3

Received: 15/05/2017 • Approved: 30/05/2017

Content

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results of research

4. Discussion of results

5. Conclusion

References

1. Introduction

At the G20 meeting on September 5, 2016, the concept was formulated as the Contours of innovative growth of the "Group of Twenty", where a central place was devoted to innovations in the science and technology field as to a factor playing a fundamental role in contributing to economic growth, supporting the creation of new jobs, entrepreneurship and structural reforms, as well as improving productivity and competitiveness.

Aggravated geopolitical rivalry determines the need to take advantage of the historic opportunity for growth, national security efforts, improvement of living standards and development of the branches of the new technological order, which are opened up by the technological progress.

In the strategic context, it is difficult to overestimate the significance of the "Strategy of the scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation" (STD Strategy) adopted in late 2016 (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated December 1, 2016 No. 642). Innovations are integral to the complex process of formation and implementation of the strategy of all the market participants, while innovative development cannot be understood outside the context of their operation, apart from the people that determine their strategy (The State and the Market, 2010).

The document names persistent inconsistency of priorities and instruments to support STD at the national, regional, sectoral and corporate levels as one of the unsolved problems of the STD in the Russian economy (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated December 1, 2016 No. 642). Activities in the framework of the Strategy must ensure the implementation of national priorities formulated at the federal level, integrity and unity of the country's STD. Since then, the sectoral documents of the strategic planning in the field of STD, state program of the Russian Federation and its subjects, as well as planning and target-oriented documents of the partially government-owned companies should be developed on the basis of the approved STD Strategy. As such, the configuration of the vertical system of strategic planning in this area will be formed, providing an opportunity to its efficient state regulation.

The STD Strategy defines the place of the National Technology Initiative (NTI) as one of the key instruments to transform fundamental knowledge, search and applied research into products and services for the long-term leadership of Russian companies on the global market. The NTI was designated as one of the priorities of the state policy for the first time in the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly on December 4, 2014.

NTI is a long-term complex program to set the conditions to ensure the leadership of Russian companies on the new high-tech markets, which will determine the structure of the world economy in the next 10-20 years. The STD implementation must ensure significant changes in the branches in its area of implementation, as well as the formation of markets for new products (EnergyNet, FoodNet, SafeNet, HealthNet, AeroNet, MariNet, AutoNetFinNet, NeuroNet) with a stable long-term socio-economic effect.

NTI is designed to combine the efforts of business representatives, researchers and developers able to develop and use the most advanced technology in order to find out what barriers need to be removed and what kind of support they require.

2. Methodology

The target-oriented approach to management is broadly defined as a way to solve large and complex problems through the development and implementation of the complex of target measures aimed at goals the achievement of which ensures a solution to the arisen problems (Kuznetsov and Neustroev 2012; Rumyantsev 2014). It follows from above definition that the essential features of the problems that require solution through the target-oriented means include complexity, scale, urgency, polysystematicity, informativeness, complex nature of the decision-making processes, actual impossibility to solve the problem with traditional methods, without centralization, concentration, additional resource mobilization, use of specific forms and methods of arrangement, management and provision of state support (Kuznetsov and Neustroev 2012).

Undoubtedly, both a plan of measures to implement the STD strategy and NTI plans of measures ("roadmaps") have all the above features. Like any programs, they are not just an instrument of planning. We must mention the unity of their substantial part with the formation and use of organizational and financial implementation and control mechanisms. In particular, "Russian Venture Company" is endowed with the functions of the STI project office, including project management, organizational, technical, expert and analytical support, information and financial support for the development and implementation of "roadmaps" and NTI projects, as well as monitoring of the latter.

Management of innovative activity through the programs of innovative development (PID) has already become one of the areas of strategic planning in the majority of large domestic companies partially owned by the government (Kuznetsov and Rastov, 2015; Gershman and Thurner, 2016). The systematic assessment of PID efficiency is carried out in the form of monitoring of their development, adjustment and implementation. Employee motivation systems are formed using the results of monitoring (Kuznetsov and Rastov 2015)

The project-based approach, new for the local practice of the state regulation, is provided in the organization of monitoring and control of changes in the NTI projects.

At the same time, the only task was set to establish a list of indicators of achievement of the level of progress in the implementation of the STD Strategy. The Government of the Russian Federation is charged with control over the implementation of the plan of measures to implement the Strategy, but the procedure has not been established.

Unfortunately, recommendations to the public authorities of the subjects of the Russian Federation to "be guided by the provisions of the STD Strategy in implementing the operation in this field, providing for the necessary changes to the state programs of the subjects of the Russian Federation" (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated December 1, 2016 No. 642) so far have only a framework nature.

The methods of project management of innovative projects of the partially government-owned companies that implement PID, with a phased monitoring of process of their implementation and justification for corrective actions, have yet to be implemented.

Finalization of development of the mechanism of assessing the efficiency of implementation of the STD Strategy at all levels of the vertical system of strategic planning requires maximization of the use of accumulated experience of assessing the efficiency of the federal and departmental target programs, construction of national ratings and systems of the corporate key performance indicators.

3. Results of research

The suggested configuration of the system of assessing the efficiency of the implementation of the STD Strategy is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. System of assessing the efficiency of the implementation of the Strategy
of the scientific technological development of the Russian Federation

When it comes to the assessment of implementation of the plan of measures for implementation of the STD Strategy or the NTI plan of measures ("roadmap"), it is important to consider two circumstances:

1) due to their programmatic nature, these plans include not just interrelated projects, the management of which is advisable to coordinate in order to achieve advantages and the degree of control that are not available if managing them separately, but also cyclic organizational, informational and other measures beyond the individual projects – organizational, technical, expert and analytical support, information and financial provision;

2) achievement of goals and tasks (significant control results) of the plans of measures must be assessed taking into account the actual level of budget spending allocated to implement them over the reporting period (year).

The achievement of goals and tasks (significant control results) at the actually achieved level of budget spending allocated to achieve them can be assessed using the following algorithm.

4. Discussion of results

The following conclusions can be made based on the assessment of efficiency of implementation of the plan of measures or "roadmaps":

- score of 90 and higher – "efficient implementation";

- score from 50 to 90 points – "insufficiently efficient implementation";

- score of less than 50 points – "inefficient implementation".

The proposals to adjust the goal, task and list of measures of the plan, cutbacks to funding, early termination, etc. can be formulated following the results of the assessment of efficiency of implementation of plans of measures on the implementation of the STD Strategy and the NTI plans ("roadmaps").

The authors believe that the development of instruments to support the STD on the regional and sectoral levels should be guided by the following considerations.

Support for the STD at the sectoral level should focus on the following areas:

– improving the quality of patent and licensing activities (as in well-known, departments responsible for this activity are completely shut down at some enterprises), support of patenting the industrial property abroad;

– standardization and accelerated development of technical regulation;

– support to business in implementing quality management systems, expansion of principles of lean manufacturing;

– raising the prognostic level of sectoral foresights;

– introduction of production asset management systems based on the assessment of technical condition and risks, etc.

The policy assuming the concentration of resources for innovative development of certain territories (such as Far East in Russia, including the establishment of an innovation center on Russky Island) and aimed at promoting the development of rare innovative regional clusters only aggravates the isolation of the defense-oriented territories and structural imbalances in the allocation of innovative potential, as well as prevents the involvement of regions in scientific, innovation and educational environment.

Resolution of many problems related to competence of the regions (depreciation of physical infrastructure and housing, high unemployment rate and lack of job security in the future, poor scales of realization of entrepreneurial initiative, poor quality of service in the social sphere and adverse environmental setting) secures demand for advanced technology, products and services for the long term (Gusakov 2014; Rumyantsev 2015).

In our opinion, a need has emerged for:

– the launch of a regional innovative standard based on preparation of target models of best practices of successful regions;

– the formation of management teams capable of implementing such models of best practices in the subjects of the Federation;

– the establishment of the National rating of the state of the STD in the regions and its science-based parameterization.

Today, the following must be noted:

– None of the regions has a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework to support the STD;

– Most regions have not defined and regulated the list of priority areas of the STD;

– No indicators of the STD are present in the assessment of performance of the executive authorities of the Russian Federation (for example, the indicator "Share of innovative products, works and services in the total volume of shipped products, works and services" can be used for these purposes).

It will be fair to say that the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge of the National Research University "Higher School of Economics" publish the "Rating of innovative development of the subjects of the Russian Federation" annually in the form of an analytical report (Gokhberg 2016). According to the methodology of the "Rating...", the quality of innovation policy is defined by the availability of the strategy of innovative development, coordination bodies on innovation policy, areas of the priority development of innovative activity, specialized programs of state support for innovation, and a number of other indicators. However, before assigning the national status to this type of rating and include its target indicators in the system of assessment of the performance of the heads of the federal executive bodies and senior officials of the Russian Federation, a broad expert discussion of its concept, methodology and parameters is required.

5. Conclusion

As such, immediate coordinated action is required today in order to accord priorities and instruments of the STD support at the national, regional, sectoral and corporate levels by completing the formation of the configuration of the vertical system of the STD strategic planning with the subsystem of assessment of efficiency of the implementation of the STD Strategy. Unity of strategic foundations and software tools for their implementation will allow to solve the problems of creation, development and promotion of advanced technologies, products and services, to remove barriers and create incentives for the own radical technological innovations, identify perspective staffing needs of new global markets, and to stimulate the development of a system of professional associations.

References

Gershman, M. and Thurner, T. (2016). New Development: State-owned Enterprises as Powerhouses for Innovation – the Russian Case. Public Money & Management, 36 (4): 297-302.

Gokhberg, L.M. (Eds). (2016). Reyting innovatsionnogo razvitiya subyektov Rossiyskoy Federatsii [Rating of Innovative Development of Subjects of the Russian Federation]. Moscow: Higher School of Economics, pp. 248.

Gosudarstvo i rynok. Mekhanizmy i metody regulirovaniya v usloviyakh perekhoda k innovatsionnomu razvitiyu [The State and the Market. Mechanisms and Methods of Regulation in the Terms of Transition to an Innovative Development], (2010). Saint-Petersburg: Publishing House Asterion, pp 394.

Gusakov, M.A. (2014). Identification of Directions and Ways to Transform the Scientific and Innovation Space in Different Regions. Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast, 3: 151-168

Kuznetsov, S.V. and Neustroev, S.S. (2012). Programmno-tselevoy podkhod v upravlenii innovatsionnym razvitiyem ekonomiki [Target-oriented Approach in Managing the Innovative Development of Economy]. Saint-Petersburg: Publishing House SUAI, pp. 139.

Kuznetsov, S.V. and Rastov, M.A. (2015). Innovatsionnaya deyatelnost kompaniy s gosudarstvennym uchastiyem: strategicheskiy kontekst [Innovative Activity of Partially Government-owned Companies: Strategic Context]. Saint-Petersburg: SUAI, pp. 171.

Rumyantsev, A.A. (2014). Povysheniye deystvennosti nauchno-innovatsionnykh programm [Strengthening the Efficiency of the Scientific and Innovation Programs]. Innovations, 1 (183): 51-54.

Rumyantsev, A.A. (2015). Science and Innovation Space of a Macroregion: Prospects of Innovative Territorial Development. Studies on Russian Economic Development, 26 (4): 379-387. 

Strategiya nauchno-tekhnologicheskogo razvitiya Rossiyskoy Federatsii [Strategy of the Scientific and Technological Development of the Russian Federation]. Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated December 1, 2016 No. 642. Date Views 25.01.2017 www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_207967.

1. Dostoevsky Omsk State University, 644077, Russian Federation, Omsk, Prospekt Mira, 55a. Email: aem55@yandex.ru

2. Institute of Regional Economy of RAS, 190013, Russian Federation, St. Petersburg, Serpukhov str., 38

3. Saint Petersburg State University of Economics, 191023, Russian Federation, St. Petersburg, Sadovaya str., 21