Explaining the “Ilya Muromets Syndrome” of Business Innovations in Russian Industries

Abstract

This article provides an explanation of the reasons for the low intensity of innovative behavior in the vast majority of Russian industrial companies found in a survey of corporate executives administered in 2011. I found two major causes for the situation when companies possess sufficient innovative capabilities but lack the motivation to use such capabilities for real innovative actions: the positive perception of the CEOs about the already achieved competitive positions of their companies and the unwillingness of shareholders who act as dominant stakeholders of most Russian industrial companies to bear additional risks associated with innovations. I labeled this “Ilya Muromets syndrome”: Like the youth of the Russian hero Ilya Murmonets, Russian industrial firms seem to be trapped in their bed of complacency, and only exceptional circumstances can stir them to heroic innovative actions.

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