Global imperatives for development of international production networks: case of Ukraine

The influence of information is the main productive force and the subject of production for the economic systems development. Information services contribute to the competitive economy, to the provision of optimal conditions for human development, and the implementation of effective democratic procedures. The results of the socio-economic development of Ukraine testify to the growing lag of the parameters of its competitiveness from many countries of the world and to the strengthening of differentiation in the regional development. Since the regional environment today largely determines the competitiveness of the entire national economy, it becomes important to discuss the appropriate methodological tools for assessing the development level of information and communication infrastructure (ICI) in the regions of Ukraine.
Given the necessity of solving a specific problem, a methodological approach to assessing the development level of ICI is proposed, which is based on the calculations of integral indicators by the entropy method and aimed at the implementation of a group of economic regions in accordance with its defined parameters. The improved methodical toolkit takes into account consistent stages of the system for estimating indicators, which allows to analyze and evaluate the levels of ICI regions development and to obtain the value of specific digital divisions between individual regions.
The implementation of the proposed scientific and methodological approach allowed to obtain the results of the assessment of the ICI development level, to allocate regional clusters depending on the ICI development levels, to identify factors that restrain the ICI development in the regions and to propose recommendations for their elimination.

Non-primary export is one of the most promising areas for the development of Russian foreign economic activity. However, the significant influence of geopolitical problems and underdeveloped internal mechanisms of statutory regulation, state support and stimulation of non-primary exports in Russia do not allow to use all available potential in this regard. As such, the problems of non-primary export development in Russia are being actualized with a view to ensuring a positive influence of this kind of foreign economic activity both on the welfare of the state as a whole and on strengthening its positions in world markets.
The purpose of the article is to consider the specifics of non-primary export development in Russia and to propose measures to stimulate its growth.
The object of the study is the existing system of non-primary export in Russia with its inherent features and operating principles.
The research methodology is as follows: scientific search, generalization, systematization, analysis, graphical construction, modeling, formalization, and forecasting.
The key research results consist in the systematization of information on Russia’s promising non-primary export industries, the study of the current system of state support for export, the identification of problematic aspects and the search for solutions, and the development and justification of mechanisms for tax incentives for non-primary export, including due to the proposed division of enterprises into target groups depending on the volume of income from their foreign economic activities.
The practical value of the results obtained is that they can be used at the macro level by introducing amendments to the regulatory and legislative acts of the Russian Federation on export regulation in accordance with the results of the grant of the President of the Russian Federation for stimulating and supporting non-primary export.

Online technologies are currently the most dynamically developing industry, both in product creation and promotion. The study focuses on their incorporation into the SME (small and medium enterprises) segment, which comprises the most economically stable element of any European economy. This paper aims to identify and evaluate dependency in the area of online technologies and promotion tools use in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) related to company age and export involvement. Most research on SMEs focuses on external influences and factors, while this article reflects the internal environment of business entities, which is the source of this study’s originality. The hypotheses were validated by an empirical study of a sample of 743 respondents (companies and entrepreneurs, including family businesses). The research method was a combination of CATI and CASI, and the research tool was a structured questionnaire. To analyze the survey results, the Chi-square test of independence was applied. The key finding was validation of the dependence between the use of the online tools for manufacturing and promotion and the export focus of companies. Companies operating on foreign markets use a wider range of online tools for their business than companies focused on the domestic market. On the other hand, the presumed significant differences in the use of online tools between young businesses and companies long-term established on the market were not confirmed.

Acknowledgment
The authors are thankful to the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, University of Technology in Brno and University of Finance and Administration in Prague, Project No.: “TL02000434 Rodinné podniky: generátory hodnoty a určování hodnoty v procesu nástupnictví” for financial support to carry out this research.