Promotion of innovation activity in Russia through the creation of science parks: the case of St. Petersburg (1992-1998)

Following the switch to the market economy, government policy envisaged putting R&D onto a commercial footing, so that state funding could be replaced with private funding. The commercialisation of research has, however, not fulfilled expectations due to the dire straits of the Russian economy and to the ingrained tendency to emphasise the high technological level of products without properly investigating the demand for them. The creation of science parks has been one of the few measures adopted in order to favour this transformation, but in the absence of comparative statistics it is hard to judge their contribution to the development of tenant firms. Science parks in St. Petersburg have been rather successful in securing financing for their tenants, but deficient in providing management assistance. The transfer of technology to industry has been weak due to the limited demand for high-tech products. Many firms survive in a embryonic state and this explains why despite the difficulties the number of jobs created has been substantial, although presumably many are low paid. This picture is, however, less applicable to innovation centres because of their policy of accepting mainly firms at a more advanced stage of development. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.