This research was aimed at analyzing the moderating role of region on the impact of internal and external sources of knowledge on product innovation from a multilevel perspective. This study has made a contribution to the knowledge and innovation management field for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), by analyzing the utilization of internal and external sources of knowledge in rapidly changing environments, such as the Russian business context, with consideration given to regional disparity. Empirical estimations are carried out on the basis of more than 700 Russian manufacturing SMEs, observed in 2018 within the framework of the project, “Factors of Competitiveness and Growth of Russian Manufacturing Enterprises”. Internal and external sources of knowledge were identified through latent variables and a method of hierarchical linear modeling was applied, considering firm-level data nested within different regions. The results obtained, show that in Russian SMEs, when considering the moderation role of the region, internal and external knowledge have a positive impact on product innovation. Moreover, external knowledge contributes more by comparison to internal knowledge. Meanwhile, the region context conditions the strength of the innovation effect for both knowledge sources. The significance of regional conditions in transforming internal and external sources of knowledge into product innovation, requires specific policy elaboration at regional level. Moreover, the dominating role of external knowledge sources for product innovation in SMEs, proves the necessity of specific policy elaboration with regard to the knowledge-sharing infrastructure connecting different business units.

这项研究旨在从多层次的角度分析区域对内部和外部知识源对产品创新的影响的调节作用。这项研究通过分析在快速变化的环境（例如俄罗斯商业环境）中内部和外部知识源的利用，并为中小型企业（SME）的知识和创新管理领域做出了贡献，并给予了考虑地区差异。根据2018年在“俄罗斯制造企业的竞争力和增长因素”项目框架内观察到的700多家俄罗斯制造业中小型企业进行实证评估。通过潜在变量识别内部和外部知识源，并考虑到嵌套在不同区域内的公司级数据，采用了分层线性建模的方法。获得的结果表明，在俄罗斯中小企业中，当考虑该地区的适度作用时，内部和外部知识对产品创新具有积极影响。此外，与内部知识相比，外部知识的贡献更大。同时，区域环境决定了两种知识来源的创新效果的强弱。在将内部和外部知识源转化为产品创新方面，区域条件的重要性要求在区域一级制定具体的政策。此外，外部知识资源在中小企业产品创新中的主导作用，