The article identifies the potential of regions competitiveness, taking into account their relationship with specialization and place in the territorial division of labor. It is proved that the region should pursue a competitive policy in the field of economic, organizational, production and technological, business, image and other development tasks. The competitiveness of regions among themselves and in international markets creates an integral, synergistic effect of state eco-nomic policy, and therefore the state in various ways supports the development of the competitive potential of each of its regions. For Ukraine, the problem of assessing the competitiveness of regions is particularly relevant, which is especially felt in the context of trends in decentralization. The development of rational and scientifically sound recommendations for determining the competitiveness of the regions of Ukraine requires comprehensive consideration of foreign and domestic experience in this area, so it is advisable to consider modern methods developed to solve this problem. The authors determine the regularity of a fairly close relationship between the level of competitiveness of the region with a set of indicators of socio-economic potential of the region and grouped the latter into 10 integrated indicators. According to the ranking priority of the Kharkiv region, its potential for competitiveness is at a high level and is able to provide the region with high rates of economic growth. Taking into account the ranking positions of the regions in terms of 10 indicators. The proposed method of calculating the competitiveness indices of regions, according to the authors, is relevant and accessible from the standpoint of obtaining initial data, as evidenced by the use as data sources for calculations of modern statistical and other publications, information from which is freely available. Thus, the location of the regions on the ranking scale of selected indicators can be determined by the fact that in re-gional development there are significant disparities and differences. However, more than half of the regions have their advantages on individual indicators. The study has identified these benefits and each region can use this in its development strategy and in developing measures to increase competitiveness.

Based on the results of the open statistical data analysis, the paper justifies indicators for an integral assessment of the economic potential of Ukraine by types of economic activity of business entities. Since the potential is implemented in the future, the paper uses trend analysis to determine the prospective values of previously selected indicators. At the same time, some relative indicators were decomposed into absolute elements (as each of the absolute indicators has its own dynamics of changes). Stepwise, logarithmic, exponential, and other dependencies are used to predict indicators. In addition, the prospective values of indicators were normalized in order to get the correct calculation of the integral indicator in the paper. The integral indicator of the economic potential of Ukraine for each type of economic activity of business entities for the year 2022 is calculated as a result of generalizing the normalized values of prospective indicators. The calculation results can be used to distribute budget funds that are planned to be used for ensuring the long-term development of the Ukrainian economy sectors.

The necessity of quantitative assessment of the degree of city programs implementation to support the development of entrepreneurship in order to ensure the economic development of Ukrainian cities is substantiated. A comparative analysis of business development support programs developed in Lviv and Kharkiv has been implemented and identified their common features, differences and features of the formulation of business support areas, which allowed to assess the priorities of program developers in this area. It was found that in Lviv the development of entrepreneurship is largely focused on entrepreneurial training and support of producers, while for the city of Kharkiv the priorities are information support of entrepreneurial activity and support of industrial enterprises. The tasks contained in programs to support entrepreneurship is also classified in the paper, depending on the possibility of quantitative assessment of the implementation results. For those that can’t be evaluated with quantitative methods, it is proposed to use expert evaluation techniques. In cases the task completion involves the presence or absence of specific results (information resources, sites, specialized services etc.) the dual assessment method is recommended for the assessment of city programs of entrepreneurial support and development. Recommendations for the selection and definition of indicators to assess the implementation of measures contained in programs developed in Lviv and Kharkiv to support business development have also been formulated. Particular attention is paid to determining the planned number of representatives of the target groups on which the measures to support entrepreneurship are focused. Recommendations for determining the integrated indicator of entrepreneurship support as a general criterion that allows to assess the degree of relevant programs implementation at the city level have been formed. The results of the article can be used to assess the level of urban programs implementation to ensure business development with further improvement of these programs.

The problems of financing scientific activity are devoted in the paper. The main focus in the paper is paid to the substantiation of the amount of funding for science depending on the types of entities` economic activity. The paper analyzes the scientific works of domestic researchers on the identified problems and formulates a conclusion about the need for more detailed research by formulating scientific recommendations for determining the amount of funding for scientific activities. Based on the results of the analysis of official information characterizing the financing of scientific activity, the paper calculates the indicators that are proposed to be used to justify the volume of state funding of scientific research by type of economic activity of economic entities. Based on a comparison of indicators with their values in Ukraine as a whole, the paper identifies indices that characterize the staffing of scientific activities, innovative developments and raising funds from international organizations. It is proposed to use these indices as components of an integrated indicator of research funding. To identify the most promising types of economic activity of economic entities in the paper, their ranking is carried out depending on the value of the integrated indicator of funding for scientific activities. The results of the ranking showed that the most promising area of activity is scientific, professional and technical activities, which is quite logical and is explained by the industry specifics of this area. Also, rather high values of the integrated indicator have such areas as: education, processing industry and real estate transactions. Agriculture and transport are among the least promising. The integrated indicator of financing of scientific activity in work is offered to be used as a criterion of distribution of the state means directed on financing of scientific researches. The results of this paper may be supplemented and improved in the event of changes in the composition of official information relating to scientific activities.

The paper is concerning the problems of forming a dividend policy of joint-stock companies. Also established that the lack of dividend policy leads to a decrease in business reputation and investment attractiveness of joint-stock companies, which negatively affects to the development of that ones. The comparing of variants to define conception of dividend policy of joint-stock company is presented in the paper. As a result, dividend policy of joint-stock company is defined in the paper as a complex of approaches to optimize the size of dividends for various shareholders' groups in order to comply with their property interests, taking into account the financial capabilities and priority objectives of a joint-stock company. Also, the main approaches and basic types of dividend policy realizing is analyzed in the paper with advantages and disadvantages of their practical application. The main alternatives concerning dividend policy are determined in the paper: the growth of investments and accelerated enterprise development with deterioration of the reputation among minority shareholders, or limiting investments with increasing dividends, which leads to improving the reputation and increasing the value of company. In addition, the methodical recommendations for improving the dividend policy of joint-stock companies are substantiated with the improving of current methods of calculating the value of dividends. It is established that the most optimal is dividend policy, which takes into account the relation between financial results and dividend payments of joint-stock company. Particular attention is paid to the substantiation of methods for calculating the value of dividends and allowances, the factor of payment and the and rate of dividends growth. The practical application of the results is important in the case of choosing an aggressive approach to realize dividend policy of joint-stock companies. Thus, the successful application of the recommendations described in the article will provide a gradual increase in business reputation and investment attractiveness of joint-stock companies.