The increased final consumption exacerbates the problem of the scarcity of natural resources and leads to environmental pollution. The concept of circular economy, which implies the formation of closed-loop chains of production and consumption with maximum regeneration and recycling of materials, is considered as an alternative to the firmly established “linear economy” (take-make-dispose). As a part of sustainable development strategy, the European Union adopted a general policy on the transition to a circular economy. However, for objective reasons, such transition is quite uneven at the level of member countries, which adversely affects the total progress. Therefore, the need arises to assess the positions of individual countries and identify major reasons for the uneven transition to support the countries that are lagging.The goal of the study is to identify the factors of uneven progress of the EU countries towards a circular economy. For that reason, a set of empirical data (20 indicators) has been compiled; cluster, classification, and parametric analyses have been conducted. As a result, three clusters of the EU countries have been obtained and six indicators, included into combinations that make all clusters different, have been identified. These indicators can be interpreted as the key factors contributing to the uneven progress of the EU countries towards a circular economy. The difference in harmonic means by clusters allowed quantitatively estimating a “circular gap”. It is of practical value for the EU policy aimed at bridging the gaps between member countries during the transition to a circular economy.

The paradigm of "unlimited growth" capitalism leads to an aggravating the problem of a natural resource shortage, an increase in waste and general pollution of the Earth. The concept of a circular economy (CE) is an alternative to this; it implies a transition to closed production and consumption cycles. The purpose of the article is to supplement this concept with ideas of integrating several rationalizing production models of the CE building at the national production system level, taking into account the country's participation in international trade. These model production models are "flexible custom manufacturing", "distributed manufacturing" and "lean manufacturing", which also means the widespread involvement of small and medium-sized enterprises. The use of digital technologies for a new quality of communication, as well as the creation of sharing centers, in order to achieve greater organizational and technological complexity of the production system is required. The CE building must take into account the country's participation in international trade. Attention is focused on the fact that the CE will have a different effect on certain types of international trade, in particular, it will stimulate such trade as: materials for processing, secondary raw materials, technologies, projects of finished products, R&D services. Purposeful national and global policies, expansion of international cooperation and support of developing countries are needed in order to increase the positive contribution of international trade to СЕ building. Practical recommendations for the CE concept implementation are proposed, including the creation of: information infrastructure for production networks; digital platforms for interaction between producers and consumers; industrial parks, clusters and incubators for new industries, as well as technological, digital and organizational innovation stimulation.

Escalating competition, technological changes and the struggle for innovation present companies with a knowledge management (KM) challenge. To implement it at the modern level, it is necessary to develop a knowledge management system (KMS). Significant opportunities for this are created by information technologies (IT), qualitatively changing approaches to knowledge management. Therefore, the study aims to clarify the theoretical foundations of shaping the company’s KMS and conceptualize information tools for its formation. Within the theoretical foundations of KM, its essence (as a systematic management activity and a set of measures to ensure the business processes of obtaining, storing, disseminating and using knowledge in the company), the subject (the aforementioned processes and various types of knowledge), and links with other types of management (innovation, information, personnel management, etc.) are specified. Given the main goals, principles and tasks of KM, its main approaches, key processes and control elements are summarized. The conceptual foundations of KMS development are formulated and its subsystems (methodological, planning, information, and functional subsystems for ensuring business processes for obtaining, distributing and using knowledge) are highlighted. Given the importance of IT, the following concepts have been formulated: a portal for R&D management, innovation management platforms, and a tool for formalizing knowledge and corporate knowledge base. Their purpose, functionality, and the role of ensuring work with knowledge and KM implementation are described. The problem of their implementation, operation and improvement is emphasized. The research results allow creating a new technological basis for the introduction of knowledge management.

To carry out a comparative analysis of the EU countries’ national innovation systems (NIS), a feature vector has been compiled, covering three modules, namely, science, education, and innovation. The feature vector is a valid multidimensional data set of sixteen official statistics indices and two sub-indices of the Global Innovation Index. The development of a cognitive model for managing the NIS parameters required a preliminary three-stage empirical study to determine its elements. In the first stage, cluster analysis was performed (the k-means, metric – Euclidean distance algorithm was used). As a result, the EU countries were divided into four clusters (following multidimensional scaling estimates). In the second stage, a classification analysis (using decision trees) was carried out, which allowed determining three parameters that distinguish clusters (or classes) optimally. These parameters are recognized as important ones in terms of positioning the countries in the general ranking; that is, they can be considered as a priority for the NIS development and improving the countries’ positions in international comparisons. In the third stage, based on the authors’ approach, the significance (information content) of each key parameter is estimated. As a result, a cognitive model was compiled, taking into account the parameter significance. The model can be used in managing the NIS parameters, seeking to increase the system performance and improve the international position of a specific country. The model can also be used by partner countries, for example, Ukraine, as it demonstrates the landscape of EU innovative development and outlines the directions for priority development of NIS towards the European progress.

У статті розглянуто структурні особливості сектору інформаційно-комунікаційних технологій (ІКТ) в Україні як основи для появи цифрової економіки та процеси дифузії інновацій (ДІ), які супроводжують її становлення. Розглянуто показники глобальних витрат на ІКТ та глобального ринку послуг із розроблення програмного забезпечення. Проаналізовано показники, які характеризують активізацію процесів дифузії ІКТ у світі, визначено основні проблеми та обмеження їх розвитку. Із метою вироблення рішень стосовно забезпечення ДІ у секторі ІКТ в Україні проведено аналіз досвіду українських стартапів, які вже досягли успіху на світовому ринку, а також найбільш перспективних стартапів. Розглянуто досвід проєктів та компаній групи Noosphere у сфері забезпечення ДІ у секторі ІКТ. Детально досліджено способи, які компанії та проєкти групи Noosphere використовують для отримання і просування технологій. На основі вивчення цього досвіду виділено нові наукові положення забезпечення процесів ДІ. Проведено кластерно-класифікаційний аналіз галузей економіки та регіонів України за показниками використання ІКТ. Виділено ключові показники у визначенні позицій галузей та регіонів у відповідних градаціях таких об'єктів. Проведено параметричний аналіз отриманих результатів, на підставі якого показано наявність цифрового розриву між галузями та регіонами України. Обґрунтовано, що отримані результати формують параметричну карту управління становленням цифрової економіки по галузях та регіонах, а також карту шляхів розвитку ДІ. Проаналізовано, що скорочення цифрового розриву за рахунок міжрегіональної дифузії інновацій вимагає механізмів міжрегіонального співробітництва. На основі зарубіжного досвіду розроблено схему державної підтримки трансферу технологій, яка охоплює весь цикл створення інновації на основі імітації. Ключові слова: інформаційно-комунікаційні технології, дифузія інновацій, трансфер технологій, цифрова економіка, цифровий розрив, сектор ІКТ.