An analysis of international economic activities of Russian regions by means of virtual clustering

Subject. Today, the involvement of Russian regions in the world economy is becoming more and more important. Additionally, international economic relations of the regions have their own specific features determined by the level of the social and economic development of the region, its production capacities, infrastructure, the support of authorities and a number of other factors which need to be taken into account when developing the corresponding policies. Objectives. To classify Russian regions into groups with a similar level of development of various types of international economic activities and to identify their specific features. Methods. The following research methods were used to achieve the goal: a cluster analysis was used to group regions into virtual clusters; a comparative analysis was used to identify regions representing the specific features of the development of the relevant clusters; a correlation-regression analysis was used to detect and predict the dynamics of parameters of international economic activities of Russian regions. Results. As a result of processing original statistical data for 2018 for nine indicators, 81 Russian regions were grouped into five virtual clusters. The clusters were ranked according to the sums of standardised values of indices reflecting the level of development of international economic relations. The specific features of international economic activities of the clusters, their strengths and weaknesses, and representative regions were determined. Conclusions. It was found that Russian regions are strongly differentiated according to the level of the development of international economic relations. Since regions are focused on separate areas of international economic activity, it was possible to form 5 uniform virtual clusters. Cluster A (comprised of 3 regions) is focused on the international technology-based production with contributions from foreign funds. Its products are sold in the CIS countries and oversees. The most developed area of economic activity of cluster B (10 regions) is exports to the CIS countries. Cluster C (4 regions) is characterised by the extremely unbalanced development of the studied parameters. Its strengths include exports to foreign countries and the inflow of direct foreign investments. Among the relatively developed areas of international economic activities of cluster D are exports of goods abroad and imports of technologies and technical services. Cluster E (43 regions) is an outsider and does not have a pronounced focus on international economic activities. The weakest position for all five clusters is exports of technologies and technical services abroad.