The article presents the results of the survey assessing the satisfaction level of small and medium businesses of the Sverdlovsk region with the factors of the institutional environment created in the area. Modern economics identifies four economic benefits of entrepreneurship development: job generation; productivity growth; innovation and economic growth. Governments, however, can exert either a positive or a negative influence on the extent to which in practice these benefits materialize. The positive result of Government policy is the investment appeal of the territory. We suppose, that the investment appeal of the territory depends on the correlation of the indicator of satisfaction and objective parameters of the institutional environment. Data for the subjective view was the survey of the satisfaction level of small and medium businesses of the Sverdlovsk region with the factors of the institutional environment at the year 2015 (more than 1000 respondents in 72 territories). Data for the objective view was Reports of the Heads of Sverdlovsk region municipalities about the efficiency in the municipal management, made public in 2015. The results of the research allow to develop a series of recommendations to improve the institutional environment for small and medium businesses. The basis for the selection of priority measures to improve the satisfaction of entrepreneurs is the correlation of the indicator of satisfaction and objective parameters of the institutional environment. The recommendations of the paper can be used by State and Municipal Governments in the policy of the increase of territory investment appeal. The scientific results of the research can become the base for further investigations of the correlation between subjective and objective factors of territorial development.

The maturity of competitiveness and its dynamics is a focus of assessing state decisions aimed for economic growth. To estimate the maturity of the competitive environment, researchers apply different methods. However, synthesis of the existing approaches has revealed the comparability of various approaches to the assessment of the maturity of the competitive environment. The authors have proposed a methodology of comprehensive assessment, which includes the estimation of market concentration, diverging trends of revenue and costs, survey of entrepreneurs. The comparison of the estimations employs a three-stage model of data processing. This model consequently compares the characteristics of markets maturity obtained while implementing the above-mentioned approaches. We have tested the methodology using the materials of the research performed in 2015–2017 on the territory of Sverdlovsk Region. Our study has shown the following essential results. Firstly, we have classified socially important and priority markets of Sverdlovsk Region by the level of competitiveness development. Most of the markets are estimated as the markets with missing and low competition. The majority of them represent the segments of the education market. The authors also grouped highly competitive markets, which include the retail market, the market of overland carriage of passengers, the market of communication services and the market of cultural services. Moreover, we specified the group of markets with a moderate competition. This group consists of the market of housing and communal services, social services market, and the market of medical products. Secondly, we confirmed that the assessment of a competitive situation using one of the approaches is imprecise. Both in 2015 and in 2016, there is no convergence in estimates received by statistical and survey methods for the market of social services and certain segments of the education market. The authors explain it by a considerable share of the “grey” sector in these markets, which cannot be fully analyzed. Hence, we recommend to use survey methods to analyze competition in the markets of education and social services as these methods allow considering insider information and the illegal tendencies of their development. The results of the research may contribute the analysis of competition as well as the development of antimonopoly policy at the federal and regional levels.