UNICORN COMPANIES IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS: REGIONAL AND SECTORAL ASPECTS

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the essence and key features of unicorn companies - innovative startups, the value of which is 1 billion dollars USA and more. The author's definition of a unicorn company is proposed: these are avant-garde startup companies that implement innovative and creative business models different from traditional business, have significant potential and dynamics of development, attract highly qualified managers to the company's management, implement their activities based on advanced technological solutions and understanding of the global processes of digitalization, for effective development require a modern startup ecosystem and cost 1 billion dollars or more. In other words, such companies not only meet the $ 1 billion quantification, but also have such transformational industry corporate influence, significant innovation-creative and socio-cultural contribution to global business development in the long run. Given the changes in the global business environment, the authors highlight the main characteristics of unicorn companies today: disruptive innovation, focus on the end user (B2C), a significant change in the technological paradigm, commission-based earnings model, the most popular markets are retail and e-commerce. According to the results of the regional-sector analysis, it was determined that the majority of unicorns come from the USA and China, suchn sectors as fintech, software and IT services, e-commerce significantly predominates. Taking into account the methodology of the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, the authors clustered the cities with the largest number of unicorn companies, It showed that most of them are based in highly integrated Alpha and Beta cities. The article also summarizes the key transformation challenges for the development of unicorn companies during the Covid-19 pandemic and outlines the transformational aspects of the development vector: home consumption will accelerate the development of e-commerce technologies, platforms and information and innovation applications; work from home intensifies the development of remote business systems, information and communication technologies and tools; learning from home will promote the development of educational technologies, massive online courses, corporate online universities.