ENTREPRENEURIAL CAPITAL AND THE VOLUME OF SMALL ENTERPRISES PRODUCTION: RUSSIAN REGIONS DATA

The purpose of this study is to assess the three-factor production functions describing the dependence of the small enterprises (SEs) and microenterprises, which include turnover on the wages of their employees, investments in fixed capital and the entrepreneurial capital of a particular region. The authors propose the indicator that characterizes the level of entrepreneurial capital — the number of employees of large enterprises located in the respective regions. This study is based on the empirical spatial data specifying the activities of employees in all SEs and microenterprises, as well as a number of large enterprises. The official statistical information includes observations on business activity of 1,449 SEs and microenterprises in 80 Russian regions in 2015. The research determines the factors influencing the turnover of enterprises, proves the high quality of the source data approximation using the three-factor production functions and confirms the need for an increased number of small and microenterprises for the Russian regions’ economy. The authors discover tools for the evaluation of production functions, which are of academic and practical importance. They can be used in studies of the regions’ entrepreneurial sectors, for monitoring the efficiency of resource use, and the rationale for the entrepreneurship development programs.