The paper provides the evaluation of the efficiency of financing the regional policy promotion activities from the EU structural funds and efficiency of funding of national and regional smart specialization strategies’ priorities in 2014-2020. It determines 6 key smart specialization domains among 216 RIS3 of national and regional (NUTS 2) levels: agriculture, food, and biotechnologies; green technologies, energy; transport, mobility, logistics; ICT; life sciences, biotechnologies, pharmacy, biotechnologies; material sciences and intellectual production. Four hypotheses on the close relationship between the investment volumes, directions, and results of their use are empirically verified. The results of the applied correlation analysis show the close relationship between the volumes of funding of the smart-specialization activities and the paces of agricultural output per capita with three clusters of countries by the distribution of funding by the strategic priorities. Regarding the other smart specialization priorities – “environmental technologies, energy efficiency” and “transport, mobility, logistics”, the dependence between the funding from the European Structural and Investment Funds and reducing CO2 emissions from new vehicles is proven. Support of strategic priorities “material science” and “smart production” by European Structural and Investment Funds in 2014-2020 is characterized by growing GRP volumes per capita with clear differences between the developed and average-level EU countries. The reasonability of supporting the implementation of the smart-priority “medicine, pharmacy, healthcare” in most RIS3 of EU countries and the substantial correlation of financial support from EU funds with the paces of state expenses on healthcare increase is substantiated. The conclusions about the efficiency of selected priorities, their high convergence ability, and the capacity to form transnational cooperation are made. 

regional policy, EU, smart-specialization strategy, priorities, efficiency evaluation 

Legal preconditions and current condition of forming of amalgamated territorial communities (ATCs) on the basis of the cities of oblast significance (COSs) are examined. Advantages of consolidation of adjoining rural (town) communities with the COSs in financial, spatial and institutional fields are assessed. The dynamics of demographic and territorial parameters of COSs before and after consolidation with rural and town communities is analyzed. The analysis verifies the fact that with consolidation of more territorial communities the area grows significantly and the number of population grows slightly due to concentration of population on the limited area of a city and substantial spatial resource of rural communities. Budget parameters of newly created ATCs on the basis of the cities of oblast significance by the criteria of financial capacity of amalgamated territorial communities is estimated. The higher level of development and tax capacity of territorial communities with the center in the city of oblast significance and some diversification of financial parameter among them are emphasized. The following financial results received for urban ATCs are characterized by high diversification: cost of managerial bodies’ maintenance, general fund income per capita, level of budgets’ subsidiarity. Additional parameters to adjust financial estimated data of the efficiency of urban ATCs’ activity are suggested. Special attention is paid to the fact that financial resource is the major additional resource obtained from consolidation with COS for a rural community and spatial – for a city. However, the importance of staff resources for both consolidation participants is somewhat undervalued. Substantial increase of the area contributes to activation of entrepreneurship and investment capacity of cities and improvement of spatial planning in the perspective, leading to post-industrial agglomeration, strengthening of spatial and institutional cohesion of population. 

cities of oblast significance, decentralization, intermunicipal cooperation, amalgamated territorial communities (the «ATCs»), agglomeration 

This article has revealed the peculiarities of the influence of the oblast city centers on the endogenous regional development by way of an analysis of the basic local potentials of urban economy, as well as brought to light the main problems of the mobilization of endogenous resources. The current urbanization trends in Ukraine have been estimated within the context of providing endogenous development, and the main obstacles to the realization of the scenario of endogenous development have been identified: demographic, economic and institutional ones. The development of the oblast city centers has been analyzed according to their key indicators, the comparison of the results of urban and regional development during the years 2010-2016 has been carried out, the indicators of the elasticity of the growth rates of the city and oblasts have been calculated, conclusions on ensuring the positive impact of oblast centers on their own regions and the reasons for their absence have been made. The measures towards the effective use of local resources, the reduction of social stratification of the population, providing them with a wider access to basic services have been proposed. The implementation of a new development policy of urban centers as hubs of economic activity will contribute to the cities’ endogenous development, to the increase of their global competitiveness. 

endogenous development, urbanization, cities-oblast centers, regional development, coefficients of elasticity 

The article deals with the approaches to the definition of the essence of entrepreneurial potential of the region and the theoretical and practical importance of determining the effectiveness of realization of the region’s entrepreneurial potential in the conditions of modernization of the economy spatial organization. The methodical approach and algorithm of estimation of efficiency of the region’s entrepreneurial potential realization are based on the choice of adequate methods and indicators. The advantages and disadvantages of the most common methods of assessing the entrepreneurial potential are identified in accordance with the objectives and existing information data.
It is determined that the change of the economy spatial organization involves the formation of new conditions of the business environment, which is characterized by economic freedom, high level of risk of entrepreneurial activity, competition, change of motivation that affects the possibilities of realization of entrepreneurial potential. Changing strategic priorities in the spatial organization of the Ukrainian economy has created a number of challenges for the region’s entrepreneurial activity. The proposed algorithm for assessing the effectiveness of the entrepreneurial potential of the region involves the implementation of certain stages of the study: 1. Determination of the goals and objectives of the assessment of the entrepreneurial potential of the region in the conditions of changes in the spatial organization of the economy. 2. The choice of methods for assessing the effectiveness of the entrepreneurial potential of the region, taking into account changes in the spatial organization of the economy. 3. Rationalization of the system of indicators for assessing the efficiency of the entrepreneurial potential of the region. 4. Calculation of efficiency of the region’s entrepreneurial potential exploitation and ranking of regions by integral values. 5. Development of measures to optimize the entrepreneurial potential of the region.
The importance of taking into account the peculiarities of the spatial organization of the economy in the form of certain network forms of business organization in assessing the efficiency of entrepreneurial potential has allowed substantiating expediency of the inclusion of a separate component of the potential – spatial integration and development of indicators of its determination.
The proposed approach to assessing the effectiveness of the entrepreneurial potential of the region will help formulate a rational policy of spatial development of business in the regions and create a reserve for business activity growth, optimize the localization of entrepreneurial activity, and substantiate the mechanisms of regulation of the spatial organization of business to support certain types of business or change the directions and priorities of the development strategy for improving the economic management of the region. 

entrepreneurial potential of the region, estimation of efficiency, spatial organization of economy, forms of spatial organization of the economy 

On the basis of generalization of current theoretical approaches, the essence of spatial forms of business activity that are the drivers of economic development of the regions, are characterized by different features and need systematization and typology to make informed management decisions, is grounded.
It is established that a variety of mechanisms of traditional and modern forms of business activity in the region need terminological ordering, unification of methodological approaches to their understanding and typology for the purpose of elaboration of strategic measures on the control of spatial development, modelling and prediction of new forms of spatial organization of the economy as certain «points of growth».
The features of development of spatial business forms, which lie in significant differences in their performance subject to location, are analysed. To ensure positive dynamics of regional development, the improvement of the efficiency of business entities’ interaction in the region is considered to be necessary as far as the integral index of business activity greatly depends on a spatial ordering of economic units in the region.
The essence of a number of key concepts is discussed and the meaning of «spatial forms of business activity» with its dominant forms in the region is defined. Typification of spatial forms of business activity organization by the nature of the integration ties’ development and by their spatial configuration is specified, namely, the point (local), linear, crowded in areas (zonal), the ones with a network structure (network).
It is stated that the concentration of business activity in the region and its forms depend on several factors, primarily on the development of scientific and technological progress.
Determination of theoretical principles of organization and development of spatial forms of business activity is proved not only to improve scientific statements of spatial economics, but also stimulate business development, statistical base of spatial development of the region, as well as speed up the reform of the regional economic policy in terms of decentralization.
The presented typology of spatial forms of business activity of the region shows that the criteria of the spatial forms’ distinction require further research in the context of determination of a unified methodology for study of spatial aspects of the region’s economy development, specification of spatial forms according to the dominant economic activity, establishment of spatial patterns of distribution and development of such forms in terms of factors of the spatial business forms location. 

spatial forms of business activity, business activity of the region, vertical and horizontal integration, spatial configuration, typology 

The modernization of state management of urban development provides an administrative decentralization of empowerment and authority to cities, and a new level of integration of government, business and the public, which is possible with the implementation of e-government tools. At local level, the practice of e-governance is implemented primarily in big cities – regional centers. Such cities are regional metropolises for their regions through the implementation of metropolitan functions, especially organizational and management, which is based on the coordination and management of critical for society activities in social, economic and political spheres. The management component of metropolitan function is implemented through the activities of state and local authorities through the adoption of a number of important political and administrative decisions. Application of e-government in the metropolitan cities is updated by the demand of society to improve the access to administrative services for residents, improving their quality, and therefore this is a feature of the public society. The purpose of the publication is to analyze the level of implementation of e-government in practice of local authorities and public administration at the regional centers of the Western Ukraine and to determine its impact on the level of implementation of organizational and management metropolitan functions based on evaluation of external attributes of e-governance. Modern information and communication infrastructure, introduced in most metropolitan spheres of life, makes it attractive for economic agents, generates pulses for business development, encourages human capital, which in turn generates its competitive advantages over other metropolises, which are included into metropolitan network. The monitoring of implementation into practice of municipal e-government tools (official content of sites, implementation of electronic documents and providing of administrative services) in the cities of Ukraine is carried out by national and international NGOs. Methods of their estimation mainly differ in the number of indicators and results include subjectivity due to the lack of elaborated national standards for the provision of electronic services. The review of monitoring results of evaluation of tools of e-government in 2014 showed that among the regional centers in western Ukraine Lviv city is the leader. The city actively provides e-government and reached certain advantages in Ukraine, which is evidenced by the introduction of the online portal ‘Inhabitant’s private office’ that provides online access to administrative services through inhabitant’s electronic identification. The imbalances between the level of implementation of e-government in regional metropolis and the level of implementation of organizational and management functions of metropolis confirms the necessity of working-out individual measures, instruments to stimulate implementation of e-government for each metropolis on the basis of compliance with state standards. The development of e-governance in regional metropolises of Western Ukraine calls for coordinated organizational and technological measures and coordinated actions of state and local government under unified state policy that involves unification, systematization and standardization of administrative services. 

regional metropolitan, organizational and management function of metropolitan, e-government, modernization, administrative services, monitoring 

Theoretical issues of regional ekistic space formation are presented. A range of terms and notions of the theory of ekistics is systematized and the basic approaches are defined. Author’s interpretation of the concept «ekistic space» is given; attention is focused on features of its transformation. Necessity of development of rational regional ekistic policy in terms of administrative and territorial reform is stressed. 

ekistics, ekistic regional system, transformation of ekistic space, ekistic regional policy