Entrepreneurship development and its role in implementing the smart specialization approach in Ukraine

The article highlights the development trends of the Ukraine's business sector and explores its participation in implementation of the smart specialization approach at regional level with the identification of problems and ways to improve the entrepreneurial discovery process. The current state, dynamics, factors and problems of entrepreneurship development in Ukraine are analyzed. An increase in quantitative component of entrepreneurial potential, share of profitable entities and volume of capital investments, while reducing interest from foreign investors in Ukrainian business, are noted. Based on the analysis of expert assessments of well-known international ratings, we focus on domestic entrepreneurship's low innovative activity and numerous shortcomings in the management of innovation and investment processes, which make it impossible to improve Ukraine's position in the global economy and inhibit investment in the business sector. We believe that in order to overcome the negative situation, accelerate innovative development, structural modernization and increase regions' competitiveness, it is advisable to use the modern smart specialization approach. The paper investigates organization of the process of implementing this concept and its first results by examining five leading territories in terms of the number of active enterprises, as well as Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as the most problematic regions in the socio-political and economic fields. The formed working groups, smart-oriented regional goals and selected sectoral priorities are analyzed. The differences in the smart specialization methodology application and the entrepreneurial discovery process' organization and results are established. The study concludes that involving a business in the entrepreneurial discovery process is insufficient. The reasons for low interest of the business community in this process are identified. A preliminary vision of a new communication tool for key stakeholders aimed at improving the efficiency of the entrepreneurial discovery process and creating new areas of specialization and growth points to ensure regions' sustainable development is presented.