The Size of Innovation Space as a Factor of Innovation Activity in Regions

The research objective is to obtain and ground the quantitative characteristics of the impact of science and business on the results of innovation activity of the Russian Federation subjects. Under such results the number of patents issued and new production technologies developed are considered. Hypotheses testing is conducted enabling to establish the relationship between the innovation activity of a region and the number of potential links between the organizations creating new knowledge and innovation active businesses. The totality of these relations is characterized as an innovation space of a region. The results obtained through econometric modelling using the official data from the Rosstat and U. S. Census Bureau, Patent and Trademark Office, National Center for Education Statistics for the period 2009-2013 allow to justify some properties of estimates of the regional innovation space technical efficiency and the estimates of innovation activity results elasticity by the innovation space size for the subjects of the Russian Federation and the states of the USA. An emphasis is made on the role of public authorities in creating a favourable environment for innovation activity enhancement for the Russian Federation subjects through facilitating new research organizations emergence and higher education institutions start-ups.