Small and Medium Enterprises’ Sector in an Adverse Business Environment of Ukraine: The Role of Cooperation

The chapter features a discussion of the current state and development trends of entrepreneurship in Ukraine in the first decade of the twenty-first century. The country has a weak tradition of entrepreneurship—with the exception of shadow business—due to the legacy of the socialist period. A lack of tradition only partially explains a low level of contribution of small and medium enterprises (SME) to overall economic development, growth and innovation. The purpose of the chapter is to examine achievements of entrepreneurship development in Ukraine to date. It is increasingly recognized that a sign of success for small business is if it is integrated into the overall system of business. This chapter also attempts to contribute to research on the cooperation of enterprises. Against the background of the analysis of small and medium enterprises status and policy development trends, the issues of cooperation of small and large businesses are discussed. The basic idea is that cooperation between small and large businesses is potentially an important tool to support small businesses, but enterprises often fail to realize this potential. This is due to the limitations of the environment, the business competence of entrepreneurs, lack of a proper combination of various types of cooperation and gaps in business support infrastructure.