The Demand for Innovation in the Russian Economy: An Analysis of Narratives

Abstract

This article analyses the narratives of actors in the Russian innovation system (RIS) (business, public administration, and academic organizations). These narratives reflect significant ideas and beliefs about the formation of demand for innovation, and the cause-and-effect relationships that may conform to, or contradict, economic theories. The authors employ data from 43 media and Internet resources selected using the “Medialogia” platform. They identify 229 narratives focusing on the reasons behind the low demand for innovation. The analysis revealed five groups of prototypical explanatory models containing information on the social context, factors, causes, and the formation mechanisms of the low demand for innovation in Russia: the significant transaction costs in the interaction of business and academic organizations; the lack of sufficient incentives for Russian business to actively innovate; a lack of effective reproducible mechanisms for the stimulation and upward implementation of grassroots initiatives of RIS actors; the ineffectiveness of the functions of three RIS institutions (maintaining the stability of transactions, protecting property rights, and reducing transaction costs); and the lack of trust among RIS actors.