High-tech industrial company: A normative and a positive approach to the definition

Despite the term “high-tech industrial company” is widely spread in economic science and practical activities, there is some confusion about its understanding and criteria for classifying companies as such. The paper reviews approaches to the treatment and essence of high-tech industrial companies and based on that puts forward the principles for methodological justification of their technological status. The research methodology rests on the combination of two approaches: a normative and a positive analysis. Additionally, the research employs the theory of economic growth, innovation and technological waves theory. The methods of research include critical analysis, synthesis, and institutional data systematisation. The author identifies two lines in the research of the company technological level. The normative approach aims to making company indicators closer to the ideal (normative) values present in the international organisations and foreign countries’ guidelines. The major setback of such approach seems to be that the high-tech status is assigned to the company on two grounds: belonging to a particular industry and input (resource) parameters. The positive approach takes into account the heterogeneity of markets and implies that a company differs objectively from others in terms of the performance indicators. Given the specifics of industrial companies, the author identifies a number of criteria, which can form a basis for an adequate assessment of the level of their technological development. The paper reveals the objective difficulties of such monitoring connected primarily with the problem of measuring the novelty of technologies. For this, the author suggests using a method of complex measurement of industrial company status, which allows for all the elements of the business model. The research findings fill the methodological gaps in the evaluation of the industrial company technological level, which opens up a possibility to devise company development strategies and select efficient tools for implementing the industrial policy.