METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE RESEARCH OF INNOVATIVE ACTIVITIES OF ENTERPRISES

Abstract

The article is devoted to analyzing and generalizing modern methodological approaches to studying innovative activities of enterprises. The importance of innovation determines the relevance of the research as a factor that stimulates the development of new products, services, and processes that can significantly increase the efficiency and productivity of enterprises. The study of the innovative activity of enterprises requires various methodological approaches, each characterized by unique approaches and methods of cognition. The research used methods of analysis of literary sources, generalization, and expert evaluation. According to the analysis of literary sources, the following approaches to studying innovative activity at enterprises were singled out as qualitative, quantitative, mixed, comparative and historical, network, and system. The advantages and disadvantages of the described approaches are analyzed, and the results are presented in a table. Two groups of the most common methods in analyzing enterprises' innovative activity – qualitative and quantitative – are analyzed in detail. Qualitative methods are essential for studying the nuances and complex aspects of innovative activity at enterprises. Quantitative methods in the study of innovative activity of enterprises contribute to the numerical analysis of data, testing of hypotheses, and establishing statistical dependencies. Current directions and problems of research on innovative activities of enterprises are discussed. It was concluded that the study of innovative activity at enterprises covers a variety of research methods, and the choice of a specific approach largely depends on the subject of the study, the nature of the innovation being studied, and the necessary depth of understanding of the researched processes. Prospects for further research consist of the substantiation of criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of enterprises' innovative activities and the study of individual cases, particularly on the example of Ukrainian business during the war. The practical value of the article is determined by the formation of methodological approaches with the identification of specific methods that can be applied in research on the innovative activity of particular enterprises.