Introduction
The construction of the so-called technological town is becoming increasingly widespread in the modern world of development. These territories are intended for the concentration of various kinds of specialists, who are provided with convenient and beneficial conditions for productive activities and creating a contribution to the country. Henceforth, the Skolkovo Project is a Russian initiative with the main purpose. Despite multiple goals, which in addition to the development of the scientific sphere, included the development of ecology and infrastructure, the Skolkovo Project failed in the implementation process. Thus, this case study explores the essence of the Skolkovo Project initiative and the reasons why its implementation failed at the development stage.
Skolkovo Project
Thus, first of all, it is necessary to investigate what the initiative under study is. Consequently, the Skolkovo project is the first technological city in Russia, which includes the construction of infrastructure, in which the emphasis will be on science and its development. President Dmitry Medvedev approved the creation of a technological city in Russia in 2010. Moreover, the project is important because it seeks to gain the greatest scale by attracting many foreign investors and stakeholders. The official Skolkovo website provides information that, at the moment, it has 3358 residents, 137 industrial partners, and a 4,6 billion dollar revenue “Skolkovo today,” n.d., para. 1). Residents who wish to live in the city are provided with favorable conditions, for example, reduced tax payments. Thus, the Skolkovo Project should become an example of the direction in which urban infrastructure and scientific activities should be developed to ensure an increase in the quality of life and technology development in the country.
Smart City Project Intentions
Next, it is necessary to consider in more detail the intentions that were in the implementation of the initiative to create a smart city project Skolkovo. This aspect is of particular importance, as it is the basis for building policies and strategies that will help attract specialists. Thus, the main intention, as already mentioned, was that Russia faced the task of simultaneously forming a progressive urban infrastructure and an environment that would favorably influence the development of technology.
Regarding the social component, the creators also had specific goals that should be achieved at the end of the construction of the project. Thus, the inclusion of organizations that will provide medical and educational services to ensure the comfort and convenience of residents is valuable. The division of the territory into various kinds of clusters allocated to a particular area of scientific and technological activity helps to properly organize the space occupied by the Skolkovo Project. Thus, the responsible parties of innovation emphasize the importance of constant cooperation with residents and receiving feedback on living conditions, which is an undoubted advantage.
The central part of the Skolkovo project is its educational laboratory and innovation center. In these institutions, it intends to conduct ongoing research in such areas as public utilities and urban development, including those developed directly in the innovation center. The purpose of the creation and implementation of the project is to bring Russia to the international market of new technologies as a worthy and strong rival for other countries. The smart city system can be considered a particularly unique development (Angelidou, 2017). This development deals with the control and regulation of urban infrastructure, such as traffic flows, lighting, and energy consumption control.
Moreover, one of the positive intentions of the Skolkovo project is to increase the level of awareness and concern for the environment. Hence, the creators strive to reduce the amount of pollution and reduce the level of harmful emissions into the atmosphere (Kolotouchkina & Seisdedos, 2018). One of the ways to achieve this goal is to ban the use of cars with internal combustion engines on the territory of the city. Moreover, attention will also be paid to sorting and recycling waste, as well as the use of the least harmful methods of their disposal.
In addition, the Skolkovo project is aimed at attracting the most significant number of industry partners, which leads offers several advantages for them. Hence, one of them is the fact that technological town is an excellent source of qualified workers, which will help companies facilitate the process of finding and hiring the necessary personnel. Moreover, the value of interaction between developers and experts in the field of technology with other stakeholders is noted, which will provide an opportunity for constant exchange of experience and improvement of partner operations. The next advantage is the absence of bureaucratic issues and the simplicity of administrative operations, which is an attractive aspect for partners. As already mentioned, the Skolkovo project provides reduced taxes for startups and residents of the territory of science and technology development.
Pitfalls that Interfere the Development of the Project
Despite all the advantages and positive expectations from the Skolkovo project in Russia, it has been subjected to several pitfalls, which have contributed to a significant slowdown and deterioration of the reputation of the initiative. There are several reasons why they arose at once, the main ones being the emphasis on the commercialization of science, the illegal activities of the officials involved, and fraud with money. Moreover, the demand for the project was strongly influenced by Russia’s weak development strategy and external political activity.
Thus, the political activity of the country during the formation and construction of Skolkovo greatly affected the number of investors. This happened due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine over the lands of Crimea in 2014 (). The actions of the current President of the state caused an adverse reaction from other countries and led to the introduction of multiple sanctions. Due to this circumstance, many foreign investors of the project expressed concern about what was happening and decided to withdraw from participation in the initiative. Thus, the financial flow into the project was significantly reduced, which considerably slowed down the process of its implementation and financing.
Another, no less important reason is the illegal activity of officials who participated in the maintenance and formation of Skolkovo. As a result of multiple inspections, many significant personalities of the project were involved in a public scandal related to corruption. However, it is worth noting that despite significant reductions in the funding of the initiative, the territory and institutions of the city do not suffer. At the same time, the goal of creating a startup system on the territory of Skolkovo was a wreck and did not have the expected efficiency and results. Due to the circumstances that arose at that time, many specialists had to emigrate to other countries, which reflected a significant leakage of valuable personnel.
Policy and Execution Changes
Thus, the first problem that needs to be addressed to improve not only the development of the Skolkovo project and restore its reputation but also to improve the quality of the economic sphere is the fight against corruption and fraud (Shatkovskaya et al., 2017). Henceforth, according to collective action theory, this phenomenon is so ingrained in the country’s society that it seems natural to many. Thus, interested countries can view corruption as something justified by the actions of others. Thus, project managers should pay more attention to following the laws of the Russian Federation and establishing conditions that will not contribute to the spread of this problem.
Another execution change may be the transformation of attracting partners and investors, which will allow the project to be independent of the events taking place in the country. To do this, it is necessary to focus on creating strong and trusting relationships with stakeholders and investors. Research showed that “despite the importance of stakeholders in project governance, project management literature lacks an inclusive framework which defines the roles, relationships and positions of internal and external stakeholders” (Derakhshan et al., 2019, p. 98). Therefore, managers and project managers should carefully study this topic in order to gain an understanding of what strategy they should apply.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this case study examined the Skolkovo Project technology initiative, which was created in Russia. In the course of the work, the advantages and brief information about the industrial city were determined. Moreover, the project is of interest to specialists who can improve its performance. Despite this, the founders of the Skolkovo project had several serious violations. To avoid the recurrence of such concerns, it is important to introduce measures to limit barriers to the development of the initiative.
References
Angelidou, M. (2017). The role of smart city characteristics in the plans of fifteen cities. Journal of Urban Technology, 24(4), 3-28.
Kolotouchkina, O., & Seisdedos, G. (2018). Place branding strategies in the context of new smart cities: Songdo IBD, Masdar and Skolkovo. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 14(2), 115-124.
Shatkovskaya, T. V., Romanenko, N. G., Naumenko, Y. A., & Parshina, E. A. (2017). The problem of individualization of legal entities in terms of innovative development of the Russian Federation and the European Union Economy. European Research Studies Journal, 20(1), 162-171.
Skolkovo today. (n.d.). SK.