The IT sector in today's digitalized world plays the role of a driver of social progress and a factor in increasing the competitiveness of countries. This leads to the intensification of scientific research, which is devoted to this area. In this article, the authors analyze the features of the development of IT entrepreneurship in Ukraine. Particular attention is paid to the study of regional differences in the volumes of government procurement for the training of IT specialists. To do this, the authors use cluster analysis, assess the extent of localization and concentration of government procurement for the training of IT specialists in individual clusters. To study the dynamics of indicators, the authors use trend models. The authors substantiate that the growth of volumes and the concentration of government procurement for the training of IT specialists by higher education institutions in the regions of Ukraine activate the development of IT entrepreneurship in these regions.
In modern scientific works, the phrase IT is used quite often. Thus, L. E. Dovgan, A. V. Kozynets [1], operate with this phrase, studying the ways to increase the competitiveness of enterprises; P. Kutsyk, A. Protsykevych [2], characterizing the features of state regulation of the IT services market; A. Shukan, A. Abdizhami, G. Ospanova, D Abdakimova [3], analyzing crime in the field of information technology. The same phrase in the scientific literature is also used in studies examining the problems of women’s employment in the IT-sphere (L. H. Skalli [4]); labor relations in the context of digitalization of the economy (O. Khandii [5]); transformational changes in the region’s economy under the influence of IT development (I. B. Shevchuk [6]). The terms IT technology, IT services, IT export, IT knowledge, IT schools, IT specialties, IT infrastructure, etc. are used in this connection. The term “Information Technology” is used to mean: 1. The science and activity of using computers and other electronic equipment to store and send information [7]. 2. A set of information processes using computer technology that provides high speed of data processing, fast information retrieval, data dispersion, access to information sources [8]. 3. A set of methods, production processes, and software and hardware integrated to collect, process, store, distribute, display and use information in the interests of its users [9].
The Ukrainian terms “IT-sphere”, “IT field”, “IT sector” are used synonymously. A similar meaning to these terms is embedded in the term “software industry”, which occurs in the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine [10]. The authors emphasize the special feature of the ITsphere, which means that the products created by it (services provided) are the result of a combination of software and hardware, hardware information, databases, and intelligent human resources. In the market of IT products, producers can include individual IT companies, IT services of non-specialized companies, IT outsourcing entities, IT consultants, specialists who independently develop IT products; e-information data storage devices.
The formation of an intellectual component of human capital is significantly ensured by the functioning of higher education institutions (L. I. Galkiv [11]), Sunil Mithas, M. S. Krishnan [12] argue that firms pay IT professionals much higher bonuses if they have earned an MBA degree.
Several studies are devoted to the impact of the introduction of information technology in higher education [13][14][15]. Unlike other scientists, the authors focus on enhancing IT entrepreneurship under the influence of a higher education factor. In Ukraine, it is important to consider not only the system of higher education as such a factor but also government procurement for IT specialist training.
The authors use a set of scientific methods, in particular: content analysis – to substantiate the meaning of the term “IT-sphere” and the practice of its use; dynamics modeling – to build trends in the number of business entities and the number of employees by type of economic activity “Information and Telecommunications”, etc.; cluster analysis – to identify groups of regions by the volume of government procurement for the training of specialists in the field of knowledge “Information Technology”; distribution analyses – to evaluate the degree of concentration and localization of individual indicators in clusters; regression analysis – to assess the dependence of the volume of the government procurement on the number of licensed places; tabular and graphical methods – to present and visualize the data.
The progressive development of entrepreneurship in the IT-sphere of Ukraine is confirmed by an increase in the number of business entities by type of economic activity “Information and Telecommunications” (ITC). Their number increased by 3.7 times (from 55.9 thousand units to 206.1 thousand units) from 2010 to 2019. Such a strong growth was mainly provided by the increase in the number of individual entrepreneurs (FOPs) by 4.4 times (by 16.6 thousand annually). Although the number of enterprises increased by 20.6% during the same period, its growth was not tendentious. Therefore, the dynamics of the number of enterprises, in contrast to the number of individual entrepreneurs, is not approximated by a linear trend (Figure 1:). A more obvious dynamics in terms of business entities is demonstrated by the indicator of the number of employees: declining by 9.9 thousand persons annually at enterprises, it grew annually by 16.9 thousand persons in terms of individual entrepreneurs. The authors also conclude the intensification of business development by type of economic activity of ITC relying on the following fact: the growth rate of the employed by entities the predominant type of economic activity of which is “Information and Telecommunications”, annually leaves behind the national indicator.
number of business entities, thousand, units number of the employed, thousand, people Figure 1: Dynamics of the number of business entities and the employed by type of economic ITC in Ukraine in 2010-2019.
The traditional and stereotypical positioning of the IT-sphere as a “male activity” has recently changed: the number of women in the IT-sphere is growing from year to year. At the same time, the development of women’s entrepreneurship in the field of IT in Ukraine demonstrates positive dynamics. From 2016 to 2020, the number of individual enterprises founded by men increased by 80.6% in this area, while that of women more than tripled (by 216.0 %). In 2017-2020, these figures were 75.3% and 95.7%, respectively. In IT-sphere this indicator increased by 102.2%. As a result, the share of individual entrepreneurs in the IT-sector founded by women has tended to grow: in 2016 it was 16%, in 2017 and 2018 – 23%, in 2019 – 24%, in 2020 – 25%. From 2016 to 2020, the share of women in the IT sector increased from 16% to 25% [17]. Among those who have been working in the IT sector for less than a year, this share is 36%. Currently, the largest number of women are employed in non-technical positions – HR, marketing, and administrative activities. In recent years, women are becoming more active in technical positions.
The modern Ukrainian IT space has more than 1,600 companies. The locomotive of its development is human capital. In 2020, the 50 largest IT companies in Ukraine employed more than 68.4 thousand IT specialists and put 3.6 thousand vacancies on the labor market. From 2017 to 2020, the number of IT specialists in the TOP-50 IT companies of Ukraine increased by 52.4%. To analyze the same indicator over a longer period, the authors selected the IT companies that operated from 2011 to 2020. These entities have more than tripled the number of specialists. However, only two leaders from the TOP-5 (EPAM Ukraine and SoftServe) strengthened their positions in the ranking of the largest employers. This situation testifies to the effectiveness of market mechanisms in Ukraine, which provide new companies with opportunities not only to enter the market but also to occupy a high share. In the TOP-50 IT companies of Ukraine, the share of young people (who have been working in the market for less than 5 years) exceeds 50% [18].
In Ukraine, the IT sector provides more than 20% of exported services and sends billions of hryvnias to the Ukrainian budget. Its revenue is growing 4-5 times faster than the global IT industry average [19]. Today, Ukraine is identified in the world as an attractive manufacturer in the field of outsourcing of business processes and IT. The special features of the development of the IT-sphere in Ukraine include, among other things, the presence of a significant gap between the income of its specialists and income in the other areas of economic activity. Therefore, this area is considered an attractive place of employment and attracts young people. According to the representative studies, 50% of IT employees in Ukraine in 2020 were not older than 29 years [20].
The range of products of the IT-sphere of Ukraine has also evolved. If at first the provision of basic services prevailed, later the IT-sphere gradually shifted to the creation of complex research decisions, IT consulting, strategic design, engineering, and support of digital decisions. The domestic IT companies are developing the sectoral field of their activity, moving from the cooperation with customers from abroad, who specialize in software development, to the direct cooperation with international representatives of various fields: medicine, automotive, finance, transport, logistics, etc.
The progress of the IT-sphere in Ukraine is due to a strong educational base, which provides the industry with first-class specialists. Graduates of schools and colleges increasingly choose educational institutions with institutes, faculties, or departments that teach disciplines related to the field of IT.
In the 21st century governments of developed countries, the public, and the business community have recognized higher education as a key driver of social development. The qualitative parameters of the state’s higher education system set the vectors and rates of the progress of its human capital. According to the research results of OECD’s annual Education at a Glance – 2020 [21], in OECD countries, the average income of masters and bachelors is 89% and 43% higher than the income of people with secondary education, respectively. Higher education provides a wide range of learning outcomes, among which entrepreneurial competence plays an important part. This gives grounds to identify higher education as an activator of business development.
In Ukraine, over the last decade, there has been a tendency to reduce the number of higher education institutions in the form of universities, academies, institutes (HEI), and the number of students (Figure 2:). These indicators reached the maximum value at the beginning of the 2006/07 academic year (351 units and 2,372.5 thousand people, respectively), after which they decreased annually on average by 7.6 units and 106.2 thousand people, respectively.
Besides, there is a localization of HEIs in the regional dimension. To systematize the information array of initial data, the authors used clustering technology, which was tested in MS Excel. The four clusters were distinguished (Figure 3:). The capital appeared in the first one (A), where the largest number of HEIs is located. The second one (B) is represented by Kharkiv region, in which the number of HEIs is 49% of the HEIs of Kyiv. The third one (C) includes Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, and Odesa regions, where 24% of HEIs is concentrated.
For in-depth analysis of the clustering results, averaging methods were used (Table 1), localization (L) and concentration (K) indicators: ; (1) (2) where dj, Dj is the share by the number of the set elements; Dj is the share in the volume of values of the feature in the set.
The estimated values of К, calculated for the indicators of the number of HEIs (0.381) and the number of students (0.394), indicate a moderate level of concentration in clusters А, B, C (Lj > 1), signaling the presence of regional asymmetries in the higher education in Ukraine.
The scientific and expert environment, in particular the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) [23], characterizing the market of IT services, focuses on the IT knowledge of its producers. This allows the authors to hypothetically assume that the volume of government procurement for the training of higher education-seeking students for the IT-sector may contribute to the activation of IT entrepreneurship. To verify this assumption, the analysis of government procurement volumes in 2019 and 2020 is performed (Table 2 and Table 3). The following specialties of the field of knowledge “Information Technology” were chosen for the analysis [24]: Software Engineering; Computer Science; Computer Engineering; System Analysis; Cyber Security; Information Systems and Technologies. 171 132 0 33 2825
0 1196 137 531 62 66 140 173 1565 66 120 105 153 113 35 0 0 10 129 0 38 30 66 6 30 10 10 70 0 0 19 5 0
In addition to the data on the maximum volume of the government procurement for full-time and extra-mural education, the authors operated with the relevant indicators of licensed volumes [24]. The volumes of the latter significantly affect the places of government procurement (Figure 4:) and vary in the regions of the country.
As a result of cluster analysis, according to the entry in 2019, four groups were distinguished (Figure 5:). The capital appeared in the first one (A), which has the largest volume of government procurement in Ukraine (8,200 places). The second cluster (B) is represented by Kharkiv region, in which the volume of government procurement was 6,415 places. Cluster C contained 9 regions of Ukraine, in which the government procurement varied from 121 to 1,165 places. In the last cluster (D), which included 56% of the regions of Ukraine, the volume of government procurement did not exceed 220 places.
After clustering the regions in 2020, the authors also obtained four groups of regions (Figure 6:). However, compared to 2019, there are several changes: Kharkiv region and the city of Kyiv remained in separate clusters, changing positions in favor of Kharkiv region, where there is an increase in government procurement by 16% relative to the capital; the number of regions in the third group (cluster C), which includes Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, and Odesa regions, decreases threefold; the number of cluster D increases to 20 regions against the background of increasing the average number of licensed government procurement in this cluster from 272 places to 395.
The average values of the studied indicators for the formed clusters of Ukraine’s regions are given in Table 4. The estimated values of К(2019) = 0.83; К(2020) = 0.78, calculated for the indicator of maximum procurement, show a high level of its concentration. In 2019, the government procurement was concentrated in two clusters (L(cluster A) = 14.5; L(cluster B) = 8.3); in 2020 – in three (L(cluster A) = 7.4; L(cluster B) = 13.4; L(cluster C) = 1.2). That is, we can talk about the presence of regional asymmetries in the training of IT professionals at the expense of the state.
extra-mural education full-time education extra-mural education 6312 5469 965 273 6708 6515 2164 395.5
The authors emphasize positive changes.
Firstly, the volumes of government procurement for specialist training of the IT-sphere in Ukraine in 2019-2020 increased by 3.0%. This trend has been observed for a long time. Its parameters at the level of a separate institution of higher education, which is represented by the authors of this study – Lviv Polytechnic National University, are shown in Figure 7:.
Secondly, the regional differences are diminishing. Thus, if in 2019 the localization of government procurement was typical of the city of Kyiv and Kharkiv region, in 2020 it also became typical of Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Odesa regions. The data obtained above harmonize with the data on IT clusters [27]: the ranks of the TOP-5 regions of Ukraine by the number of IT companies, the number of their staff, and the volume of government procurement for the field of knowledge “Information Technology” coincide (Table 5). This serves as a basis for establishing the validity of this hypothetical assumption.
It is obvious that the connection between the indicators of business development in the IT-sphere and the volume of government procurement for specialist training in the field of knowledge “Information Technology” cannot be functional. In particular, there is a time lag between the year of entering the HEI and the year of employment. Often, labor activity is already practiced during studying at the HEI. However, there is no doubt that the higher education environment forms the entrepreneurial potential for activating the IT-sphere. In turn, this contributes to the development of entrepreneurship, which is focused on innovation [28].
It is worth noting that in the early 2000s, graduates of Ukrainian universities who studied information technology, started business structures that specialized in creating software. The enthusiasm of student youth gave impetus to the development of the IT-sphere in Ukraine. Coaching has contributed to the development of new types of managers [29]. Starting with small projects, the IT companies started to enter the world market. Accordingly, there was a significant influx of personnel in this area.
Thus, the authors have concluded that the state, by financing the education of students in specialties related to the IT-sphere, stimulates the development of IT entrepreneurship.
The progressive development of entrepreneurship in the IT-sphere of Ukraine is confirmed by the accelerated increase in the number of business entities and their employees; a rapid increase in the volume of activity and export potential; improving the image among employers. If these trends continue, its role in the country’s economy will increase.
In Ukraine, there are regional asymmetries in the localization of higher education institutions and the volume of government procurement for the field of knowledge “Information Technology”. It is substantiated that the volumes of the government procurement for the training of IT specialists by higher education institutions stimulate the development of IT entrepreneurship and influence the localization of IT clusters. 6. References [1] L. E. Dovgan, A.V. Kozynets, Development of the IT sphere: problems and solutions in ensuring the competitiveness of domestic enterprises, Actual problems of economy and management, 2018. URL: http://ape.fmm.kpi.ua/article/view/130936/126662. [25] State order 2020. URL: https://mon.gov.ua/ua/osvita/visha-osvita/vstupna-kampaniya2020/derzhavne-zamovlennya-2020. [26] Search service for entrants of higher education institutions. URL: abit-poisk.org.ua. [27] Top 5 IT clusters of Ukraine. URL: https://ucluster.org/blog/2020/04/top5-it-klasteriv-ukraini/. [28] S. Khaminich, E. Kuznietsov, O. Ptashchеnko, L. Halaz, V. Milcheva, O. Boiko, Managing the product's creation of an innovation-oriented engineering business, International Journal of Advanced Research in Engineering and Technology, 11 (4) (2020) 278–289. URL: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3599717. [29] N. Y. Podolchak, L. M. Prokopyshyn-Rashkevych, V. Y. Karkovska, The influence of coaching on the development of manager’s leadership skills, Scientific Bulletin of the Mining University, 4 (2019) 107–113. URL: nvngu.in.ua/index.php/uk/arkhiv-zhurnalu/za-vipuskami/17952019/zmist-4-2019/ekonomika-ta-upravlinnya/4954-v.