Cluster Development of the Region on the Basis of Innovation Under the Sanctions (Case Study of the Petrochemical Complex in the Samara Oblast) / Khmeleva G.A., Tyukavkin N.M., Sviridova S.V., Chertopyatov D.A.. Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast, 2017, vol. 10, no. 5, pp. 83-98. DOI: 10.15838/esc.2017.5.53.6
In modern conditions, ensuring rapid economic development is a priority task for industrial policy, but its achievement is hampered by the sanctions imposed on Russia. Russian oil industry has become an object of special attention to the countries that initiated the sanctions. The goal of the paper is to substantiate a set of practical measures that promote cluster development through innovation as an opportunity to facilitate economic growth in the region under the sanctions. In the framework of the goal we achieve the following objectives: we substantiate the cluster approach as a theoretical framework for the innovation-driven development of the industrial complex; we explore the current state and the value of the petrochemical complex in the economy of the Samara Oblast; we justify the stages of formalization of the industrial cluster on the basis of innovation. Scientific novelty of the research consists in the fact that it expands the existing system of knowledge about economic sanctions not only as a tool of political pressure, but also as a resource for priority development of regions. The application of the research findings is associated with substantiating a set of practical measures to achieve priority development taking into account economic specialization of the region. The goal is achieved with the use of logical, systematic and statistical analysis of the regional economic system, and the data is taken from publicly available official sources. We prove that the nature of the sanctions is similar to that of economic crises, and the sanctions can and should be used to promote advanced growth in regional economies. We point out that one should not underestimate the role and importance of the raw materials sector in economic development in the regions where it can serve as a driver of development for manufacturing industries. The Samara Oblast is one of such regions; it has a petrochemical cluster, which in fact is an archaic system of a territorial-industrial complex. The paper reveals opportunities and proposes a set of practical measures to facilitate priority development of an emerging petrochemical cluster in the Samara Oblast on the basis of innovation. The prospects for further research include a search for new opportunities to accelerate innovative development of regions under the sanctions