The intensification of innovations required system approach, including at the macro level, which resulted in creation of national innovation systems (NIS). Such systems are designed to support and ensure innovation processes, including creation of favorable conditions for interaction of their different actors (various kinds of business; universities; scientific institutions; state). Each of the actors performs its own role in NIS, which contributes to the total innovation productivity. Methodology. Universities playing a specific role in NIS are an integral subject of innovative activity. Despite considerable attention to this problematics, this role is disclosed in a fragmented manner. Therefore, the research is focused on clarification of theoretical and methodological background to study of the role of universities in NIS, justification of the evolution of universities and definition of their functions in the NIS structure, specification of the key aspects of the disclosure of this role implementation. Results. This paper highlights the increasing importance of education in innovation processes and changed requirements to it, which causes respective changes in curricula, organizational models and approaches to external cooperation with science and business. In this context, the paper discloses the key aspects of interaction between universities and entrepreneurial sector, as well as evolution of universities by a number of features (dominant functions of science; universities as knowledge providers; universities as providers of high-skilled employees; universities as mobilizers of entrepreneurs). The major contradictions of the concept of entrepreneurial university are highlighted. Practical implications. The paper describes the key functions of universities in NIS, including education, R&D, development and promotion of innovations. It is suggested considering the role of universities in NIS within the framework of six key aspects: integrators of ecosystem for innovations; providers of innovations for economy; platform for cooperation; concentrators of resources needed for innovations; mechanism for knowledge transfer and source of skills; pillars of the advanced science and providers of new knowledge. In this context, the emphasis is laid on the need to develop resource and infrastructural potential of universities as well as innovation capabilities. Value/ originality. When summarzing the functions of universities, it is suggested taking into consideration the impact of university activities on the local economic development (regional, urban economy), and considering their role in interaction with international environment. A number of practical recommendations to improve the efficiency of educational and innovative activities in NIS are identified. This will be a basis for future researches.

Competitive advantages of modern companies are determined by a set of resources that discover the uniqueness of the company in the market and find out its competitive position. The authors conceptualized the process of determining the company's competitive position based on the identification of knowledge resources. Competitive positioning is understood as the process of forming, maintaining and strengthening the company's competitive position based on the audit of key knowledge resources (their types, location, carriers and directions of movement), which form key areas of the company's competence and create sustainable competitive advantages. The sequence of the enterprise competitive positioning on new resources of knowledge which reveals stages of competitive position definition is offered. The tools and methods of estimating knowledge resources in the competitive positioning of the company are formed. The matrices of the company's competitive position are constructed, which determine the competitive advantages and competitive weaknesses of the company. Criteria for interpreting the results of the company competitive positioning based on knowledge resources are proposed. They identify main company's competitive advantages and weaknesses. In the article resources of knowledge that form company's competitive advantages and weaknesses are defined. Competitive advantage matrices are built. Criteria for the results of company's competitive positioning on new knowledge resources interpreting are suggested.

The article is devoted to the problem of the formation of entrepreneurial ecosystems as a medium of growth of small firms with the participation of universities, as well as aspects of state policy in the field of innovation and small business development. It is shown that domestic universities, as a rule, adhere to the traditional innovative approach of cooperating with entrepreneurship on the basis of technology transfer and obtaining a direct financial result. The provisions of the Strategy for the development of small and medium enterprises and the role of universities in these aspects of state policy remain conceptually uncertain. It is proved that universities in Ukraine are not focused on the formation of entrepreneurial ecosystems and in support of small businesses. An example of the university unit's activity, whose cooperation with small firms contributes to the formation of a business ecosystem, is considered. The possibilities of increasing the role of the universities of the country in the formation of entrepreneurial ecosystems and more productive cooperation with small business are substantiated. The project of the Strategy of innovation development of the country for the period till 2030 is considered and it is proposed to pay more attention to creation of enterprise ecosystems with the participation of universities, and also to introduce the approach of knowledge exchange between universities and business on the basis of positive experience of a number of leading countries.

The article is devoted to the issues of knowledge exchange management between university scientists and employees of small firms in entrepreneurial ecosystems. It is confirmed that in recent decades the role of the third component of the university's mission, which is associated with the exchange of knowledge, has increased, and this changes requirements for joint creation of a cognitive product with external stakeholders, including entrepreneurship.It has been shown that the challenges for university teachers in increasing knowledge exchange are related to strengthening the component of applied research and development related to specific business projects. As a part of the exchange of knowledge, university employees must not just transfer their work to entrepreneurship, but to achieve its assimilation by employees of companies. In the same way, university scientists are faced with the task of more meaningfully studying and processing knowledge on the subject of activities of companies. This approach to joint applied research and development is a challenge for teachers, who, in addition, within education must create a pedagogically developed content knowledge of the subjects, and within the scientific component of the university's mission – to perform basic research. It is shown that three types of knowledge that correspond to modern ideas about the mission of universities are related but different, which requires appropriate changes in their management.The problematic aspects of assimilation and dissemination of explicit and implicit or tacit knowledge within the joint groups of university scientists and employees of small firms are considered. It is substantiated that in the exchange of the results of cognition with the use of material carriers, what is transmitted loses the property of knowledge to be the justified belief, because it goes beyond the mental content of the author's mind. It is proved that on the way of knowledge exchange there are not only organizational and methodological barriers, but also cognitive-communicative gaps. It is established that the socialization and externalization of knowledge in management systems has a cognitive-communicative basis to fail the desired completeness. Cooperation of different activities and knowledge is potentially a means of non-standard and useful solutions in innovative entrepreneurship. But such cooperation and co-production of knowledge is a source for incompleteness of understanding the others, which counteracts the common achievements and requires the attention of managers.

The article is devoted to the issues of audit of marketing risks by means of information technologies. It is noted that current trends in economic development have led to more frequent vulnerability of enterprises to risks. Therefore, it becomes relevant to study its marketing environment and identify and predict marketing risks. The completeness, accuracy and timelines of such an analysis plays a decisive role in management decisions. It is shown that at the present stage the role of marketing audit in anticipating, assessing and preventing marketing risks is increasing. It is emphasized that the company should perceive risk as a strategic factor in the effectiveness of management, which requires a comprehensive approach to the most objective forecasting of future risks, rather than responding to them in fact. It is indicated that the main marketing risks are unclaimed products, the risk of inefficiency of the pricing policy of the enterprise, the risk of non-compliance of product quality with consumer requirements, the risk of inefficiency of the sales system at the enterprise. Emphasis is placed on risk factors that need to be analyzed in the audit of marketing risks. The criteria of marketing risk audit are considered. The process of audit management of marketing risks of the enterprise is investigated and the stages of it’s carrying out are substantiated.It is emphasized that an important means of conducting an audit of marketing risks is information technology, the integration of which into marketing research helps to optimize management processes and increase marketing opportunities. It is substantiated that with the help of information technology the access of audit specialists to the data and knowledge bases necessary for the analysis, as well as for the implementation of economic and mathematical models, without which it is impossible to imagine a modern marketing audit. It is stated that information technologies have also become a key means of communication, information transfer, holding operational business meetings and conferences.