Gulnara Ruchkina

Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation

Moscow,

Russian Federation

GFRuchkina@fa.ru

Small and medium enterprises in the context of regional development and innovations

Marina Melnichuk

Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation

Moscow,

Russian Federation 

mvmelnichuk@gmail.com

Svetlana Frumina

Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation

Moscow,

Russian Federation 

frumina@mail.ru

Grzegorz Mentel

Rzeszow University of Technology, 

Poland

gmentel@prz.edu.pl

Abstract. The current state of economic development and innovations’ support often brings small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at the forefront of government fiscal policy. Various policy measures targeted at SMEs’ support and development necessarily include measures on promotion of innovations within small business. However, despite substantial efforts undertaken by the authorities to increased financial injections into this area, development of innovations by small businesses faces many obstacles. Statistics on the registered small and medium enterprises shows that the sharp rise of entrepreneurship observed in the early 1990s changed for the stagnation towards the end of the decade and sluggish dynamics of the present time. Unfortunately, as practice shows, measures taken so far do not stimulate significant changes in the development of small business. Moreover, differentiation of small businesses between regions is only increasing, as it is manifested through substitution of divergence for convergence. Our paper analyzes the legal framework regulating small business development as well as state of innovations within SMEs so that to identify the main indicators contributing to sustainable regional economic growth.

Received: June, 2017

1st Revision: August, 2017

Accepted: October, 2017

DOI: 10.14254/2071-8330.2017/10-4/20

JEL Classification: M13, M21, R38, R58

Keywords: small and medium enterprises, regional development, innovations, state support, economic growth