This article presents the findings of the study on the role of innovative entrepreneurship in the regional economy. The analysis is based on the methodology developed by Hermann Simon, a German scientist who has coined the term ”hidden champions” describing the phenomenon of little-known successful companies that act as innovative growth engines in the German economy. Today, the economies in different countries are developing amid the ”new normal,” in which no expected recovery followed the global crisis of 2008. This makes it necessary to rethink the role of entrepreneurship during a prolonged recession. The authors proposed and tested the hypothesis that, in this environment, the economic growth in the country and the region is increasingly determined not so much by large businesses, but by many small innovative companies. To identify Russian ”hidden champions,” we studied more than 1247 companies listed in the Innovation and Investment Market, a specialized section of the Moscow Exchange, and included in the specialized Register of Business Entities that use nanotechnology. We identified specifically Russian features of innovative entrepreneurship related to national cultural and historical characteristics and the current policy of import substitution. The authors proposed their own method for assessing the innovative entrepreneurship as a source of economic growth in the Russian regions that defines five groups of innovative entrepreneurs (global market leader, one of the global market leaders, Russian market leader, one of the Russian market leaders, not the leader in the Russian market) and compares them with large companies in terms of turnover and profit dynamics. Based on such criteria as ”number of ”hidden champions” and ”number of large enterprises per 100 thousand organizations,” we built a model for the ratio of ”hidden champions” to major companies in the Russian regions that identifies, for each criterion, three subgroups, including leaders, medium-tier and outsiders, which allowed to identify nine types of Russian regions and substantiate different development strategies for main types of regions. The study confirms that the most justified strategy for the development of innovative entrepreneurship in the region is the strategy of cooperation between different types of companies in order to overcome their weaknesses, enhance existing opportunities and activate the innovation and entrepreneurial capacity.

In the article, the authors propose the conceptual fundamentals of the “code approach” to the regional neo-industrial development. The purpose of the research is to reveal the essence of the transition to a new type of industrial and economic relations through a prism of “genetic codes” of the region. We consider these codes as a system of the “racial memory” of a territory, which determines the specificity and features of neo-industrialization realization. We substantiated the hypothesis about the influence of the “genetic codes” of the region on the effectiveness of the neo-industrialization. We have defined the participants, or else the carriers of the codes in the transformation of regional inheritance for the stimulation of the neoindustrial development of region’s economy. The subject matter of the research is the distinctive features of the functioning of the determinative region’s codes. Their content determines the socio-economic specificity of the region and the features of innovative, informational, value-based and competence-based development of the territory. The determinative codes generate the dynamic codes of the region, which are understood as their derivatives. They have a high probability of occurrence, higher speed of development and distribution, internal forces that make possible the self-development of the region. The scientific contribution is the substantiation of the basic code of the regional neo-industrial development. It represents the evolutionary accumulation of the rapid changes of its innovative, informational, value-based and competence-based codes stimulating the generation and implementation of new ideas regarding to economic entities adapted to the historical and cultural conditions. The article presents the code model of neo-industrial development of the region described by formulas. We applied the system analysis methods, historical and civilization approaches, evolutionary and institutional theory, economic and mathematical methods. Moreover, in the article, the authors presented the findings for the period 2011–2016 reflecting the empirical estimation of the importance of informational, institutional, innovative, value-based and competence-based codes. We made this estimation through the survey of population, representatives of business and authorities, students, as well as the professors of the leading universities of the Ural Federal District. The focus of the recommendations for the region is the acceleration of the transition to the new type of industrial development. The research results can be used when developing the programmes and projects of neo- and reindustrialization at both federal and regional levels.

The article reveals the trends in foreign economic development of Russian and American pharmaceutical industry. The study aims to substantiate the trends of prevailing import dependence of Russian pharmaceutical sector and export orientation of American one. Moreover, we define the main directions of export in Russian pharmaceutical industry based on the development trends of world industry leaders. We focus on identifying what is the nature and how close is the relationship between the factors of business’ innovation and complexity, on the one hand, and increasing the sector’s export orientation, on the other hand. The research methodology is based on the domestic and foreign literature on foreign economic activity in pharmaceutical industry. Furthermore, the methods include the pharmaceutical industry assessment by international institutions (particularly, the World Economic Forum). We used the data from United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) statistics, American and Russian international ratings, and the results of analytical studies of innovation processes in bio-pharm-medical sector. We hypothesise that there is a correlation between the factors of business innovations and maturity, and the volume of pharmaceutical industry export. The correlation analysis has revealed the relation between innovation development and export growth, suggesting the export’s integration into the national strategy of pharmaceutical industry. The comparative analysis of the Russian and American pharmaceutical industries has demonstrated that the increase in the export-oriented products in Russian pharmaceutical industry will be determined by the degree of the integration of information technologies into all stages of research and pharmaceutical business. The developers and ideologists of national export strategy in pharmaceutical industry might implement the study’s conclusions and recommendations on federal and regional levels. Further scientific research should focus on substantiating ways to increase the pharmaceutical industry’s competitiveness, corresponding to the fundamental information, technological and personnel challenges of this industry development.