Estimation of sectoral maladjustments linked to the need for innovative transformation of the Ukrainian entrepreneurial sector

Abstract

The importance of supporting and promoting entrepreneurship development is due to its positive impact on economic growth, innovation processes, and the population welfare, the ability to contribute to the solution of modern challenges. In Ukraine, the entrepreneurial sector – the totality of large, medium, small, and micro-enterprises that carry out entrepreneurial activities in the country – faces problems of premature deindustrialization, slowing down innovation processes and their consequences in the form of a structurally weak, resource-based economy, which are further exacerbated in wartime conditions, when the country suffers from huge destruction and losses. Solving these problems requires a deep economic restructuring – from raw materials to industrial-innovative economy – in which the entrepreneurial sector will play a key role. The article aims to assess sectoral maladjustments of the Ukrainian entrepreneurial sector related to the need for innovative transformation as a basis for economic restructuring in modern and post-war conditions. The assessment was performed based on a set of proposed scientific and methodological foundations using indicators reflecting the level of investment in innovation and proving the effectiveness of enterprises' innovative activities, as of the pre-war period, to further (if relevant statistical information is available) compare the obtained estimates with the structural characteristics of the entrepreneurial sector during the war and post-war periods. It has been established that there are sectoral maladjustments linked to enterprises' economic opportunities in the technological sectors of the manufacturing and high-tech knowledge-intensive services, when it comes to implementing innovative transformation. Sectoral maladjustments in the levels of technological intensity of the sold innovative products in the entrepreneurial sector have been identified. It has been revealed that there are sectoral maladjustments in the levels of the entrepreneurial sector innovative effectiveness by types of economic activities (TEA), which vary significantly by industries depending on their specifics, economic status and other conditions. A grouping of TEA according to the level of innovative effectiveness (IE) has been made. It has been revealed that most of them belong to the group with a low level of IE, which indicates the unbalanced investment and innovation development of the Ukrainian entrepreneurial sector. A comparative analysis of the entrepreneurial sectors of Ukraine, innovatively developed countries, and peer countries in terms of indicators characterizing the state of technology-intensive industries development showed that the national economy lags behind both groups of countries and the need for its restructuring in the direction of increasing the share of gross value added of the manufacturing of high-technology and medium-high-technology industries. This research forms a scientific basis for substantiating and including appropriate actions in state policies to create favorable conditions for the modern and post-war recovery of the Ukrainian economy on a fundamentally new, competitive and innovative, basis.