Issue #3 (Volume 14 2018)

The 2015 elections in Turkey disrupted corporate business models in the country. Conducting business in Turkey has unquestionably been impacted by political activity that has often erupted into cultural wars and civil demonstrations. This paper discusses the strategies corporations must undertake to secure a sustainable competitive advantage in Turkey. It researches and critically evaluates the business impact of the changing and often turbulent politics, as well as collects and analyzes economic data in order to propose a decision making platform allowing companies to make informed strategic decisions. Paralleling this research, the paper also investigates how supply chains into and out of Turkey have been severely disrupted as a result of political unrest. Supply chain disruption is increasing amongst trading nations as they (the supply chains) become more complex as a result of their global expansion. External, as well as internal data, are gathered and examined for this paper in order to recommend corporate action to be taken to minimize supply chain disruption. Protection of supply chains needs to also be a priority of government. Therefore, this paper suggests how involvement in supply chain management by a stable government in Turkey would help minimize disruption and make supply chains in the country much more productive and efficient.

The paper evaluates the level of competition on the vegetable market. Based on the analysis of the production development trends and resource potential, dynamics and ratio of export and import of agricultural products, including vegetables are presented; dynamics of self-sufficiency ratio of these products is studied; challenges of food security and competitive advantages of Georgian vegetables are identified.
The article concludes that the country has a significant potential for exporting vegetables both to the countries of Europe and Middle East. The paper discusses the factors that hinder export of vegetables; in addition, the ways for reducing dependency on seasonality, opportunities for the development of modern greenhouses and mechanisms for supplying goods to customers all year round are suggested.
On the basis of analyzing the level of competition on the vegetable market, vegetable business is considered as monopolistic. In addition, it is calculated that, currently, local vegetables products account for only 75% of the market.
The paper evaluates the outcomes of high market power caused by monopoly in vegetable business; the impact of market power on pricing mechanism and the welfare of population is determined. In accordance with the problems identified, conclusions are made and recommendations for solving these problems are suggested.

To ensure and strengthen the development of high-tech R&D and its industrial applications in the long-term perspective, information and communication technologies (ICT) cooperation tools with national and international institutions, network associations and firms are of great importance. To solve this problem, a joint systematic and coordinated work to develop institutions that can provide crucial support to innovation process is crucial. For these purposes, higher educational institutions (HEI) innovation activities information and communication support and technological development analysis are critically important. The purpose of this study is to analyze the existing ICT toolkit, which is used to manage R&D and various industrial applications, and to develop a conceptual framework for the implementation of these tools for the participation of universities in innovation networks. To answer this question, authors begin by taking a closer look at the new role of universities in the development of knowledge generation in a global environment, as well as problems and tendencies under conditions of postindustrial society. The new role of universities in knowledge generation in the global environment development, and problems and tendencies under the conditions of postindustrial society were outlined. Modern ICT components, which are necessary for universities to participate in the innovation networks, were analyzed. Some cases of foreign experience in the scientific and innovation networks of current prototypes of Industry 4.0 development were discussed, and the possibilities of its adaptation to national innovation system formation conditions in Ukraine were identified. By theoretical and empirical examining, the authors propose more complete understanding of modern ICT components, which are necessary for universities to participate in innovation networks. Cases of foreign experience in the scientific and innovation networks of current prototypes of Industry 4.0 development were investigated. Moreover, the evidence from this study suggests a variety of factors related to the possibilities to adapt ICT tools to national innovation system formation in Ukraine.

Now there is no single approach to the planning of normative indicators of the foreign trade structure and the optimization of foreign economic operations, including marketing mix, which consider the priorities of socio-economic development of the territories acting as the global market agents. The work proposes an expanded method for using the Grubel-Lloyd and Horvath indices when assessing the level of inter-industry trade, which will determine the priority fields of international cooperation in the process of developing a foreign economic strategy both at the state level and for an individual company interested in expanding the geography of trade in the global market via finding new partners and using non-discriminating marketing methods.
The article reveals the existing trends in foreign trade of Ukraine that predispose current economic policy and foster the initiation of a new exporting strategy. Namely, the volume of total external debt exceeded GDP in 2014–2016; although a significant reduction of this ratio has been observed since 2017 due to the GDP shortening. Unfavorable trends were supplemented by the negative total balance of trade in goods and services in 2014–2018, with redistributing geographical structure in favor of the EU instead of the CIS countries (however, the exports in services, measured by absolute income, exceeded imports). The Grubel-Lloyd and Horvath indices, calculated for the recent trade data, proved a high level of diversification of Ukraine’s foreign economic activity, with significant intra-industry trade, but the scores of the Grubel-Lloyd index did not coincide by the geographical and commodity structure for the prevailing majority of countries. Nevertheless, new potential exporting destinations may be found, precisely because of the detected imbalances.

Addressing the imbalance between the existing demand for graduates of higher education institutions is aimed at strengthening the processes of integrating the education system with the business. At the same time, issues related to the system of forming and determining the appropriate forms and types of partnership between universities and business in Ukraine are becoming more urgent. That’s why the purpose of this study is to develop a methodical approach to the formation and adaptive use of forms of such interaction. A comparative marketing analysis of the national and world experience of the forms and methods of interaction between educational institutions and business is carried out. A methodical approach to the formation of interaction between higher education institutions and the business has been proposed. The directions and types of public private тpartnership in education are formed, the basis of which is the distribution of rights, responsibilities and risks between the partners of the relations. Depending on the changes in the external conditions of marketing functioning, there is a list of standard (universal) forms of interaction between universities and the business environment that make up the invariant core of such interaction and innovation-active (specific) forms that arise in connection with the expansion of university autonomy. The three-component model of the choice of the form of interaction between higher educational institutions and the business structures in Ukraine is proposed, which allows choosing the form that will be optimal considering the existing conditions.