Russian Small Innovative Enterprises (SIEs), intellectual capital and competitiveness: knowledge-based SIEs in a transitional economy. Part I: conceptual framework and preliminary analysis of field research

This paper reports on the first part of a combined conceptual and empirical (field research-based) study that examines the impact of intellectual capital on the competitive performance of Russian small innovative enterprises (SIEs). The research targeted in this study ultimately attempts to measure antecedents and consequents of effective intellectual capital management in small innovative enterprises (SIEs) in the transitional Russian economy. The research reported on this paper represents ground-breaking work on several counts: while a number of studies have looked at the competitive impact of intellectual on enterprise performance, very few have targeted small innovative enterprises and even fewer, if any at all, have examined enterprises in transitional economies. In this paper the notion of the knowledge-based theory of the firm in the context of the small innovative enterprise is developed. Implications of this approach for the enterprise in the Russian transitional economy are derived and a conceptual framework is developed that relates the two forms of intellectual capital (human capital and structural capital) and key external factors to enterprise performance.