The Contribution of Entrepreneurial Skills to the Social Stratification of Highly Qualified R&D Personnel: The Case of Russia

The focus of the analysis in the paper is how entrepreneurial skills contribute to the social stratification of researchers working in research and development (R&D) organizations. One of the main trends and challenges for the contemporary labour market is increased demand for complex skills that cannot be transferred to automata: entrepreneurial thinking, initiative, creativity, and the ability to solve complex analytical problems. The paper examines the prevalence and level of ownership of entrepreneurial skills among those personnel engaged in R&D by science and higher education institutions, industry, and services in Russia. A composite index of entrepreneurial skills including 7 singular skills was used for it. In addition, the relationship between entrepreneurial skills and the professional achievements of researchers is estimated. To investigate the social differences between crucial researcher’s characteristics and assess the "premium" for entrepreneurial skills, we used mixed methods. The main tool is perception mapping and the corresponding analysis, which results in the combination of statistical techniques and is a graphical way to represent relationships and differences in data. The results made it possible to build a social space of scientific personnel engaged in R&D organizations and to identify the main differentiating factors. Among them, the application of entrepreneurial skills, scientific productivity, as well as the job sector (educational, research, government, commercial sectors). The “premium” from the application of entrepreneurial skills mostly expressed in a higher wage. Respondents who regularly apply entrepreneurial skills have the highest incomes of all interrogated researchers.