Innovative activity and innovative effectiveness: analysis of the gap in Russian processing industry

Innovation activity of the manufacturing industry organizations in Russia in 20202024 is analyzed. The purpose of the study is to identify the discrepancy between the growth in the number of innovatively active enterprises and the dynamics of innovative production release, as well as to assess the effectiveness of innovative costs. The study is based on official statistical data from the Federal State Statistics Service for 2020–2024. The following methods are used: statistical analysis of the dynamics (calculation of chain and basic increments), comparative analysis of the manufacturability degree and economic activity types, calculation of innovation efficiency (ratio of the share of innovative products to the share of innovation costs), Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, and graphical methods of presenting the results.

A key contradiction is revealed: as the share of innovatively active enterprises increased from 21.3% to 23.7%, the share of innovative products decreased from 8.5% to 8.3%. Innovation efficiency peaked at 3.8 in 2023 and dropped to 3.3 by 2024. The research paper proves that the relationship between the level of innovation activity and the share of innovative products is weak, while costs correlate with the result significantly more strongly, which indicates the predominance of extensive factors with a decrease in the quality of innovation.

The authors develop recommendations to shift the focus from increasing the number of innovatively active enterprises to stimulating the launch of fundamentally new products, as well as process innovations in high-tech industries and the development of sectoral import substitution programs for medium-tech and low-tech sectors.

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