Strategic determinants of industrial enterprises’ technological development

The pace of technological changes requires certain flexibility of industrial enterprises’ business models. The paper aims to uncover and explore the importance and interaction of the determinants of technological development strategies. Methodological basis of the research rests on the tripod strategy perspective and the theory of technological development. The authors apply general scientific and sociometric methods, regression analysis. The research builds on the answers of 148 respondents that include executives and specialists of mechanical engineering enterprises, as well as experts from the Union of Defence Industry Enterprises of the Sverdlovsk oblast, regional branches of OOO “Russian Engineering Union” in Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk oblasts. The survey results allow determining the composition of the institutional, sectoral, and resource determinants of technological development strategies, of which the most influential is the institutional determinant. Technological turbulence, if inherent in the sector, decreases companies’ capabilities to respond to the institutional pressure. The most important component of the resource determinant is the availability of funds for investment, which eliminates the problems of attracting qualified personnel, protecting intellectual property, and increasing the speed of production technologies development. The research findings may be of use for company executives to formulate a balanced technological development strategy as well as for government authorities while providing state support.