Theoretical and Practical Foundations for the Development of Innovation Activities of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of substantiating the theoretical and practical foundations for the development of innovation activities of Ukrainian small and medium-sized enterprises in the face of modern challenges. The study aims to develop conceptual provisions, substantiate the principles and conditions for the development of innovation activity, as well as develop scientific and methodological tools for identifying drivers and triggers for finding new opportunities. The methods of strategic analysis used in the study are: PEST-analysis to identify factors that influence the implementation of innovation activities; perspective analysis to search for and identify new opportunities for the development of innovation activities. The paper clarifies the known principles of the development of innovation activity by introducing the principle of wholeness into scolarly discourse. This principle lies in the consistency of produced innovations with rapidly changing market requirements, the demands of society and the trends in the development of the economic system. The study presents a five-factor model of flexibility of innovative behaviour of small and mediumsized enterprises which includes the following elements: communication flexibility; management flexibility; technology flexibility; economic and operational flexibility. The author justifies the essential concept of “funnel of development of enterprise’s innovation activity”, develops a scientific and methodological approach to conducting a strategic BOB analysis and carries out its approbation. The results revealed the drivers and triggers for the development of innovative activities of small and medium-sized enterprises which form the points of their growth. The analysis shows the barriers and brakes that constrain and prevent the transformation of new external opportunities into the internal potential of the enterprise’s innovation activity. The conducted research shows that generally conditions exist in the macro environment for new impulses of change and activation of innovative development. The results obtained present scientific and practical value for the development of small and medium-sized innovative enterprises. They can be used in further theoretical studies of innovative processes and for specification of applied measures to enhance innovation activity in the modern context of Ukrainian economy.