Clustering as an effective tool for managing small business development in a region with a special status
The article examines small and medium-sized businesses as the most important sector of the economy of the Lugansk People’s Republic. Foreign experience in the development of small and medium-sized enterprises under crisis economic conditions is studied. It is determined that in this direction success can be achieved as a result of clustering. The author concludes that the merger of large enterprises with small and medium-sized businesses will contribute to the development of regional small business, and effective use of the resource potential of the Lugansk People’s Republic in conditions of certain territorial limitations. It is proposed to form a republican cooperation, which will allow to develop cluster structures in the region, based on flexible and individual concentration of enterprises, taking into account geographical features. It is mentioned that it is advisable to organize a regional cluster with a clear structure of a multifaceted process, where the chief participants are small and medium-sized enterprises, large enterprises, government bodies of the Lugansk People’s Republic, the scientific research sector, which interact via regulatory and resource support and use the multifunctional infrastructure of the cluster. The proposed structure of the regional cluster will contribute to the efficiency of small and medium-sized businesses and develop a synergistic effect. The author has formulated a number of problems that hinder the development of cluster policy. To eliminate these problems, it is proposed to involve the clustering of small and medium-sized enterprises as an integrated process into the regional development strategy and the program of socio-economic development of the Lugansk People’s Republic to speed up the phenomena associated with institutional constraints in the creation and development of clusters.