Functioning features of small enterprises in certain regions and opportunities for their innovative development

Abstract

Small business played a significant role in maintaining the socio-economic situation of the country at the initial stage of the formation of a market economy. In the most difficult situation small business has allowed to develop market relations, provide broad segments of the population with consumer goods, and also served as a starting point for the creation and improvement of larger economic formations. Up to the end of the 2000s the importance of small business was constantly increasing. Then as the concentration trends of production and monopolization of transport, trade and industrial processes intensified, small businesses began to reduce their role in the economic development of the country. Nevertheless, its influence in a number of sectors is still great, and small enterprises are still significant in the economic field, especially as a tool for the territorial development of less successful regions and as an innovative potential concentration in a number of economic areas. Based on this, it is relevant to study regional processes in small business in the country, as well as to assess the current and potential innovative development of this sector. In the paper a regional features’ statistical analysis of the small businesses functioning is carried out, its role in certain economic areas and in the overall innovative development of the country is assessed.