Statistical Analysis of Performance Indicators of the Leading Russian Exporters

Promoting the country’s competitiveness amid global turbulence is an important task at every level of the economy’s management. In the circumstances of Russia’s shrinking trade balance, which is due to the unfavorable resource market environment, studying the businesses of Russian exporters becomes a relevant research problem. The focus is placed on the dilemma of commodity/non-commodity exports, which is important to emerging markets. During the research, the authors conducted an analysis of revenue indicators and commodity and geographical diversification indicators of the leading Russian exporters based on materials from Expert Business Weekly, which may yield the following conclusions. First, resource companies’ export revenues are less volatile. Second, research results confirm, in a direct or an indirect way, the greater inclination and efficiency of resource exporters towards geographical (country-wise) diversification, whereas commodity diversification is an export strategy tool of non-resource companies. Third, the authors identified a positive correlation between foreign trade revenues, on the one hand, and the number of countries served and trade items offered, on the other hand, for mineral and energy companies; moreover, a higher elasticity of export revenue on a number of markets served was revealed. For the manufacturing exporters representing chemical, petrochemical, and food industries, a positive correlation between export revenues and the number of HS 4-digit commodity lines was identified in some years and industries alongside a higher elasticity of export income on number of commodity lines. The linear regression model showed that the addition of a new product in terms of HS 4-digit code would lead to a bigger increase in export income than a new national market entry. So, the authorities should support a product diversification of both commodity and manufacturing exporters encouraging the innovation. Thus, the performed analysis is of great practical importance, since Russia is the largest trading country in Central Europe. And the results shed light on export performance of its leading companies.