Socio-Institutional Environment and Innovation in Russia

This article investigates the impact of social capital and institutions on innovation outcome in Russian regions in 1997–2011. The novelty of the article also lies in the use of two metrics of innovation: the number of new technologies developed and patents filed. The findings provide strong support for the argument that social capital (proxied by social tension) and institutions (proxied by institutional potential) influence innovation activity. Furthermore, different types of innovation outcome are affected differently: the effect of social tension on technology development is significantly negative but insignificant with patenting, while institutional potential affects patenting negatively but its effect on technology development is insignificant.