Viktoriia Strilets

COVID-19 and Russia’s war against Ukraine have created many challenges for the business models of SMEs, stimulating them to develop alternative forms of business. Among the key alternatives, one should single out digitization. However, imperfections of Ukraine’s state support system for digital transformation necessitate adapting the positive practice of leading countries with excellent business digitalization. Therefore, this paper structures the practical experience of state support of European countries in the digitalization of SMEs. The study conducts a cluster analysis to identify countries whose experience in state support for business digitalization is the best for adoption. Clustering employed the criterion of using key digitization instruments: internet of things, integration of business processes into electronic processes, digital integration with customers/suppliers, cloud services, big data analysis, and artificial intelligence. Thus, 4 clusters were identified (the first cluster comprises 16 countries, the second – 2, the third – 5, and the fourth – 7). These findings contributed to the selection of some key measures. They included: expanding the financial capabilities of SMEs to adopt digital technologies in their processes; formation of digital hard skills among entrepreneurs and increasing the personnel potential of SME digitization; creation of a favorable business environment to stimulate the digital activity of SMEs; and popularization of business digitalization strategy as a component of digital transformation strategy in society.

Nowadays, it is necessary to consider the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the state of the national economy, in particular on the budget system. This paper examines the essence of budget security and identifies the key threats to budget security in the current context. The methodological aspects of calculating Ukraine’s budget security key indicators (their list, criteria for the use of weighting factors, range of characteristic values of budget security levels) are investigated and their state in 2015–2019 is assessed. The influence of quarantine measures on the level of budget security in Ukraine is determined. Analysis of the current state of budget security and development prospects of Ukraine, determined by the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group, made it possible to predict Ukraine’s budget security indicators for 2020–2021 and define prospects for changing budget security of Ukraine until 2024. Based on the results of forecasting, the need was identified for planning and implementing urgent anti-crisis measures in the field of managing the country’s budget security, as well as ensuring the consistency of the norms of budget and tax legislation in integration with effective measures to support the socio-economic environment of Ukraine.

Russian aggression adversely affected the economy of Ukraine and emphasized the need to adapt the best practices of EU countries to determine steps to restore the country’s competitiveness. This study aims to determine the influence of the innovative development of countries on their competitiveness and identify prospects for Ukraine’s post-war economic recovery. The study constructed neural networks to assess the relationships between the factors of innovative development and the competitiveness of the EU countries and Ukraine. Six main factors of innovative development of countries are identified: “innovations in business (S1),” “intellectual property (S2)”, “innovations in industry (S3),” “eco-innovations (S4),” “innovation management (S5),” and “digital innovations (S5).” Groups of factors are determined by the strength of influence (strong, moderate, or weak). For Ukraine, S1 and S6 have a strong effect (33.3%), S5 shows moderate (16.7%), S2, S3, and S4 show weak effects (50%). For EU countries, S1 and S6 have a strong influence, S2 and S3 – moderate, S5 and S4 – weak. This comparative analysis concluded that EU countries consider intellectual property, green economy, and state innovation policy as key components of their competitiveness. The results discovered a weak relationship between intellectual property protection, innovation in industry, and competitiveness of Ukraine compared to EU countries. However, digital innovations significantly and positively affect Ukraine’s competitiveness.