SPUTNIK ENTERPRISES - HIGH-TECHNOLOGY ENTERPRISE CREATION IN RUSSIA

Russian scientific and technical capacities under socialism were mainl y concentrated in academic research institutes. Their human and incorp orated assets are now threatened by two factors. lack of resources, af fected by a weakened stale, and a structural disconnection from produc tive capacities, inherited from the socialist system in which institut es supplied their results to administrative bodies and had no direct r elations with industry. Academic institutes are therefore undergoing d ecline or profound restructuring. A new phenomenon appears in this con text: the appearance of high-technology SMEs orbiting around academic institutes. The link between these SMEs and institutes characterises a creation mode specific to post-socialism and provides a promising alt ernative to the institutes' decline. This analysis is based on surveys conducted by the authors in institutes and emerging SMEs in a Siberia n science city.