About the Institute

The Institute of Innovation Management (IIM) was established at the Higher School of Economics in 2009. Initially, the scope of the Institute's activities included both scientific activities in the field of innovation management and educational activities, the focus of which was the training of personnel for the innovation community of the Russian Federation.

Since 2020, the Institute of Innovation Management has become a part of the Graduate School of Business (GSB) of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (NRU HSE). As a research unit, the Institute of Innovation Management is focused on contributing to the global development goal of the Graduate School of Business - to build a world-class business school.

The distinctive feature of IIM's research activities is its applied nature. Using in-depth knowledge of Russian and international business, specific industries, the global and domestic innovation landscape, the Institute's experts regularly carry out research and analytical work in the interests of customers from the business community, development institutions and government agencies.

When choosing methods for conducting research and preparing analytical reports, the Institute's team has traditionally focused on qualitative field methods. To be sure, IIM researchers also successfully employ desk-based methods, analyzing and summarizing publications and theoretical models. However, the key to the success of IIM's research work and applied studies is the emphasis on such qualitative methods as in-depth (expert) interviews, in-depth survey of enterprises and their questionnaires, and case studies.

Both the experts of the Institute and our customers have repeatedly been convinced of the fruitfulness of this approach, because only direct and face-to-face contact with the company, with entrepreneurs and managers, as well as a focus on real production and business processes gives a deep and undistorted understanding of their activities, problems and internal processes.

Briefly summarizing the experience of IIM's work in recent years, the key areas of expertise of the Institute today include:

·        research on high-growth technology companies (with a focus on medium-sized enterprises),

·        research in the field of innovative and technological business in general,

·        analytical and organizational support for development institutions and government customers implementing measures to support innovative and technological businesses,

·        consulting and research in the field of innovation and development management in companies.

Work experience

Our portfolio of research studies and projects over the past 10 years includes, but is not limited to:

·        research of high-growth companies and the practices of their support in Russia and the world (Report “Russian high-growth companies: population size, innovativeness, attitude to state support” (2021); report “High-growth companies: contribution to economic growth and crisis resilience (Russian and international experience)”, (2024); numerous publications, collection of case studies “Russian high-growth technology companies”, 2022; APEC international workshop on high-growth companies in Moscow, 2018).

·        development and analytical follow-up of various business support measures (including the development of “TechUp” (TechUspekh) rating, since 2013)

·        arrangement of company selection and the development of toolkits for state support measures at the federal level (National Champions project, since 2016; Association of National Champions), regional level (Regional Champions project, 2019),

·        conducting acceleration and scaling-up programs (“Innovation Accelerator” for SME Corporation, 2021 and National Champions Scale Up Program for RVC-RFPI, 2023),

·        research on innovation policy and Russia's national innovation system in comparison with other economies (“30 Years of Russia's Innovation Policy” for Innopraktika, 2021-2022)

·        research on corporate innovation culture and business cases’ development on this topic (for Innopraktika, 2021),

·        research and analysis of successful practices of development institutions in Russia (research on the activities of the Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises, 2018),

·        research on the impact of digitalization and mobile technologies on the development of the Russian economy and business activities (research for Microsoft and Google/ Russian Association for Electronic Communications, 2017-2018),

·        development of educational cases and business cases (case collections “Russian High-Growth Technology Companies”, 2022, “Innovation: Debriefing”, 2019, “Small Innovative Entrepreneurship. Cases of Russian companies”, 2013),

·        consulting work on innovation management in large corporations (drafting the Innovative Development Program of Russian Railways for the period until 2020 (2016); expert assessment of the implementation of the Innovative Development Program of Russian Railways for 2011-2013 (2015), development of the concept of creating the R&D Fund of Federal Grid Company - ROSSETI (2014), R&D work on developing a set of measures aimed at abandoning obsolete and inefficient technologies and introducing modern technologies for Krylov State Research Center, 2014).

Our Team

Since 2012, the Institute of Innovation Management has been headed by Dan Medovnikov, one of the country's leading researchers, analysts and experts in the field of technology and innovation business, speaker and moderator of major events, the creator and longtime editor of the science and innovation section and former deputy editor-in-chief of the Expert magazine, and now also editor-in-chief of a new online media, Stimul magazine.

Scientific and analytical activities of the Institute are coordinated by Stanislav Rozmirovich, an experienced supervisor of applied research studies, an in-depth analyst, author of a number of landmark publications in scientific and specialized business periodicals, and a proactive contributor to the process of building the Russian innovation system.

The educational activities of the Institute are guided by Professor, Dr. Svetlana Lyapina. Professor Lyapina is a recognized high school teacher and lecturer, experienced methodologist, winner of the Russian Government Prize, author of several monographs, textbooks, and numerous publications. Prof. Lyapina is one of the pioneers of innovation area researches in Russia, which have been extensively developing in our country since the second half of the 1980s. It is also very important that her experience is not purely academic. Professor Lyapina is deeply involved in consulting business, has successful experience in creating and developing several startups as well as in their entrepreneurial activities, and has worked and interned abroad on several occasions.

Other members of the institute's research team, such as Tigran Oganesyan, Alexander Stepanov, Svetlana Vorozheikina also have extensive practical experience in research and analytical work, particularly in desk and applied research, development and preparation of educational cases and business cases and other research areas.

The Institute participates in various sustainable collaborations with a number of Russian and foreign research organizations and has a large pool of experts who are involved in the Institute's work on a temporary basis. This distributed team includes both employees of other departments of NRU HSE, as well as industry experts, practitioners from business, government agencies, etc.