| Аннотация | Addressing the problem of scientific substantiation of the region’s development priorities is an
urgent issue for both regional researchers and territorial managers. At the same time, when determining
the areas of development, the emphasis is often put on successful experience of the leading territories.
This method of transplantation of best practices in order to improve the performance of the object under
analysis is called benchmarking. In classical understanding, the key stages of regional benchmarking are:
selection of the leading region for comparison, identifying the differences between the leading region
and the region under analysis, analysis of key success factors of the leading region, and implementing
successful experience in the economic practice of the research area. At the same time, the absence of
preliminary analysis of reasons and prerequisites for achieving leadership by best regions, comparison
of territories with objectively different characteristics of socio-economic development, leads to noncompliance
with the most important principle of regional development planning – the principle of goalsetting.
The solution to this problem is possible through using a new type of benchmarking, the so-called
“smart benchmarking”. Its peculiar feature is preliminary identification of structurally similar territories –
“identical regions”. Thus, defining the priorities for the development of the object under study is based on
successful experience of the regions identical to it. In this paper, the necessity of using the tools of “smart”
benchmarking in Russia is justified. The authors reveal the essence and advantages of this approach,
determine integral criteria characterizing the regions’ similarity: the geodemographic environment, the
level of education, innovation development, the sectoral structure of the economy, investment climate,
economic openness, and social values. In the context of these criteria, a corresponding database of
statistical data, including 34 indicators of territorial development, was formed. With due regard for
domestic peculiarities of the regional economy the authors developed an algorithm for the benchmarking
procedure and tested it in Russian regions. The systematization of identical territories is carried out
based on calculation of indices of structural distances and construction of the distance matrix for Russian
regions. The features of the social and economic situation of Perm Krai are determined in detail and
analyzed by comparing its development indicators with those of the regions most similar in structural
terms. The paper applies the methods of mathematical statistics, grouping and generalization, the system
approach, as well as methods of visualization of data under analysis. Based on the analysis results it is
concluded that the methodology of the benchmarking procedure can be used by public authorities to
justify effective areas of regional development. |
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