Justification of strategic priorities for the development of small businesses in the economic space of the region based on the principles of «smart specialization»

The spatial approach to studying the development of small enterprises is one of the modern directions of the regional economy Consideration of the sector, which has traditionally been the object of state and municipal support, receives a new understanding, which remains relevant to this topic: an integral characteristic of small enterprises is the spatial potential, the implementation of which takes the form of a tool for managing the regional economy. The purpose of the research is to develop and test procedures for forming an optimized portfolio of promising specializations of small enterprises in the region at the stage of strategic goal setting. The objectives of the study are: analysis of the accepted portfolio of promising specializations of enterprises in the Samara region, formation of targets for the implementation of the spatial potential of small enterprises at the sub-regional level using the principles of “smart specialization”, justification of complementary activities within the optimized portfolio of promising specializations. General scientific research methods, methods of priority coordination, statistical analysis, and content analysis were used to solve the tasks set. In this paper, the strategic priorities for the development of small enterprises in the economic space of the region are justified on the principles of “smart specialization” within the framework of the methodology proposed by the authors for realizing their spatial potential. As an example, the Otradny sub-region of the Samara region is considered. Targets for the implementation of the spatial potential of small enterprises have been developed and an optimized portfolio of promising specializations has been formed. The scientific novelty of the research consists in substantiating the strategic goals of spatial development of small enterprises in the region using an optimized portfolio of promising types of their activities, obtained on the basis of the principles of “smart specialization”. The results of the study can be used to justify the strategic priorities of small business development in the formation of a spatial development strategy at the regional (subject of the Russian Federation) and sub-regional levels, as well as in the development of regional economic policy measures.