The paper is devoted to analysis of the impact of two factors on economic efficiency of small enterprises. The first one is their innovative activities and the second one is their cooperation with large enterprises. The research was done based on data collected by authors during a survey of small enterprises' managers in Chernihiv region. The methodology of the research is based on the analysis of variance techniques of the received data. To perform it, all data were put on ordinal ranking scale and were analyzed using T-test and One-way ANOVA methods. The results of the analysis confirmed the idea that innovation and economic efficiency are interconnected issues. Moreover, the strongest impact on the income of small enterprises is made by technological innovation (e.g. new products, use of new materials and new technologies) rather than organizational improvements. Also, it was proved that cooperation between small and large enterprises positively influences the innovation and economic performance of small companies, in particular in case of production cooperation as well as permanent interaction between them.

Keywords: innovation, cooperation, small businesses, economic efficiency

The paper is devoted to the issues of implementation of smart specialization concept into the regional development policy of Ukraine. The relevance of the issue is related to the need of harmonization of the regional and innovation policies of Ukraine with the EU standards, on the one hand, and to forced incorporation of smart specialization concept into the regional development strategies, on the other hand. The experience of the EU regions reveals certain peculiarities of the implementation of smart specialization in regions with low institutional capacity, and therefore, their experience for Ukraine is the most useful. Given it, the aim of the paper is to identify specific features of the implementation of smart specialization in countries and regions with low institutional capacity and to provide recommendations for its implementation in Ukraine. Thus, the paper studies prerequisites for the emergence of smart specialization in the EU, which were related to shortcomings in development and implementation of regional innovation strategies that did not sufficiently considered needs of the regions, or were focused on traditional sectors of industry. The peculiarities of the implementation of smart specialization in countries/regions with low institutional capacity are also identified. They are related to strong focus of strategies on building links between innovation development actors, but insufficient attention was paid to the final stages of the innovation process. It is shown that such countries and regions need to make greater efforts in the implementation of smart specialization through a substantial modification of the existing processes or initiating new processes in the domains of innovation and regional development policy making. Since the choice of policy tools is a serious problem for regions and countries with low institutional capacity, the paper provides a number of recommendations from European experts on this issue. In particular, it concerns the use of mini-mixes aimed at coping with a specific challenge or at developing a certain smart priority through the synergy / complex actions of various types of policy instruments (regulation, fiscal incentives, grants, human development and mobility). Considering the experience gained in the EU regions, some policy recommendations on the implementation of smart specialization concept in Ukraine were developed. The recommendations are aimed at minimizing the risk of distortion of the smart specialization concept and at the development of more effective action plans, in particular through broader involvement of European experts in the process of the implementation of smart specialization in Ukraine on national and regional levels.

Keywords: smart specialization, innovation policy, countries with low institutional capacity

The full-scale war started by Russia in Ukraine has caused many challenges for economic development, being the latter hardly imaginable without the contribution of research and innovation. Rebuilding R&I becomes another challenge for Ukrainian policymakers. Thus, the purpose of the paper is to analyze the R&I policy of Ukraine during the war caused by Russia and to develop policy recommendations for the postwar recovery. To achieve it, we used several methods, in particular expert opinion generalization, relevant scientific and policy literature analysis, and statistical analysis.
The paper considers three approaches to innovation policy-making at crisis time: produce; procure; repurpose. Currently, Ukraine uses mainly the second one, by buying and receiving modern armament and equipment. Meanwhile, there were some innovative developments in Ukraine, which are not produced in sufficient quantities. After the war, Ukraine will no longer be able to buy armament due to fiscal constraints. Thus, in the short-run period, the government should reorient efforts toward repurposing current developments. However, such an approach is not sustainable in the long-run period, when the development of a broader S&T base is required to create a solid base for further repurposing in emergency cases. The war has caused massive damage to Ukrainian R&I potential, which by now is not fully measured and quantified. There are two types of damage: physical loss of research and innovation infrastructure (e.g. research facilities, and high-tech enterprises) and «brain drain», both of which should be the focus for R&I policymakers. Therefore, a set of policy measures is proposed to address the war-led challenges in R&I.

Keywords:R&D and innovation policy, science, war, damage, recovering, economic development