Small technology companies in Russia: empirical profile of the cohort and alignment of support tools

The article examines the Russian support model for small technology companies (STCs) and the extent to which existing support measures correspond to the actual profile of firms included in the STC register. Particular attention is paid to the mechanism used to identify the target group of innovation policy. The Russian model is considered in comparison with foreign approaches to supporting innovative small firms. The study proposes a typology of national support systems based on identification mechanisms and distinguishes status-based, program-based, and hybrid models. It is shown that these models differ not only in institutional design, but also in the possibilities for evaluating policy effectiveness. The empirical part of the study focuses on the cohort of Russian STCs classified as “startups with minimal revenue.” The methodological framework combines comparative institutional analysis with matching the STC cohort to a control group of statistical twins using administrative data from the Federal Tax Service, the STC register, and public procurement databases. The results show that companies in the examined STC cohort are more likely to exhibit expenditures exceeding revenues, a higher share of active organizations, and lower participation in public procurement compared with the matched control group. Robustness checks confirm the stability of these differences across age cohorts and tax regimes. The analysis of support measures demonstrates that many instruments either do not provide direct material resources or are oriented toward firms with higher revenues and more stable profitability. The study concludes that there may be a structural mismatch between the identification mechanism for STCs and the current configuration of support measures.