Global flows of technological knowledge: The position of Russia

Abstract

Technological knowledge, which is the basis for new technologies and innovation, is an important component of economic success — both on corporate and national levels. Such a role stimulates various actors to participate actively in the global race for talents who have this technological knowledge. The paper discusses if Russia is a successful participant of the race. It analyses the two datasets of patent documents (as for 2010–2019): 1) with Russian inventors and foreign assignees — to study the ‘outflow’ of technological knowledge from the country, and 2) with foreign inventors and Russian assignees — to measure the scope of its inflow. The results of the study demonstrate that Russia is still more a donor for the leading countries, than a recipient of technological knowledge from abroad. Russian inventors are actively involved into collaboration with foreign companies, being in demand in many global corporations, especially in the ICT field. The inflow of technological knowledge is less intense, and its key source is the post-soviet countries, in geographical proximity to Russia. One of the possible reasons for this disproportion is a lack of organizations in the country, capable to compete for talents on the global arena. Due to a specific business climate and a low interest of Russian business in R&D and innovation, an important role in recruitment of high-skilled specialists from abroad is played by the leading universities. Research institutes (including those of Russian Academy of Sciences) seem to be in the least advantaged position.