Development of Innovation Activities of Agrarian Enterprises: Towards Agribusiness 4.0

Purpose. The purpose of this article is to highlight the results of the assessment and analysis of trends, the current state and sectoral features of the development of innovative activities of agrarian enterprises and readiness for agribusiness 4.0. Methodology / approach. The study uses the following methods: bibliometric and cluster analysis using the VOSviewer program – to determine the status and clustering of studies based on the Scopus database; calculation-and-analytical – for calculating the Global index of digital transformation and readiness for agribusiness 4.0 of Ukraine and EU countries, evaluating the innovative activity of agricultural enterprises; grouping – for analytical processing of calculation results; correlation analysis – to identify the relationship between individual indices; mathematical alignment of dynamic series – to determine trends of change and predict the indicators of innovative activity; graphical and cartographic – for a visual presentation of the obtained results; monographic and abstract-logical – to generalize the results of the assessment. The empirical basis of the study was global innovation indices, data from Eurostat, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, and data from agrarian enterprises of the Kharkiv region. Results. The absolute leader according to the Global index of digital transformation and readiness of countries for agribusiness 4.0 was Sweden (81.3 points out of a possible 100). Among the analyzed countries, Ukraine took the last 29th place (49.7 points), which indicates a very low level of digital transformation and readiness for agribusiness 4.0. The assessment of the innovative activity of agrarian enterprises was carried out, which made it possible to identify the trends, current state and industry specifics (in crop production using the example of winter wheat, in livestock production using the example of milk) of the indicated activity. In crop production, enterprises were distinguished by a slightly higher level of innovative activity than in livestock production, but the differences are not very significant. The analysis of the innovative activity of agrarian enterprises in the European and national dimensions proved the presence of great opportunities for the innovative-and-anticipatory development of the agricultural sector, the implementation of which is often hampered by a lack of financial resources and an insufficiently effective policy for the introduction of innovations. Originality / scientific novelty. For the first time, the results of the calculation and analysis of the Global index of digital transformation and readiness for agribusiness 4.0 of Ukraine and EU countries are presented. Methodological provisions on the evaluation of the innovative activity of agricultural enterprises were further developed in terms of the use of indirect indicators of the number and specific weight of entities that have reached a certain level of productivity, as well as the comparison of the indicators of Ukraine and the EU. Practical value / implications. The results can be used for (i) improving the policy on increasing the innovative activity of agrarian enterprises, taking into account the industry characteristics and the achieved level; (ii) country-level assessment of the Global index of digital transformation and readiness of countries for agribusiness 4.0; (iii) making management decisions by managers of agrarian enterprises to increase their innovative activity.