Explaining the "Ilya Muromets syndrome" of business innovations in Russian industries

Journal of East - West Business. 2011. Vol. 17. No. 2-3. P. 120–131.

Gurkov I. B.

This article provides an explanation of the reasons for the low

intensity of innovative behavior in the vast majority of Russian

industrial companies found in a survey of corporate executives

administered in 2011. I found two major causes for the situation

when companies possess sufficient innovative capabilities but lack

the motivation to use such capabilities for real innovative actions:

the positive perception of the CEOs about the already achieved

competitive positions of their companies and the unwillingness of

shareholders who act as dominant stakeholders of most Russian

industrial companies to bear additional risks associated with innovations.

I labeled this ‘‘Ilya Muromets syndrome’’: Like the youth of

the Russian hero Ilya Murmonets, Russian industrial firms seem to

be trapped in their bed of complacency, and only exceptional

circumstances can stir them to heroic innovative actions.

 

Publication based on the results of: Мотивация инновационной деятельности в российских фирмах (2011)