Yakushev O. Innovative-educational cluster forms of regional development

This dissertation intends to provide an insight into the theoretical and practical definition of the scientific task of operating innovative educational cluster forms of regional development and attempts to develop practical recommendations aimed at justifying the feasibility of creating them. The prerequisites necessary to activate regional development processes are determined through the mechanisms and tools stimulating innovations, that are generated by the innovative educational cluster forms. The author systematically reviews and summarizes the approaches to defining the contents of the terms “innovational educational cluster forms of regional development” and “innovational educational cluster” that have been offered by the scholars. The research describes the sequence of stages in the process of creating innovative and educational clusters in the region. The procedure of assessing the rates of probability and feasibility of creating innovative educational clusters in the region is represented in two blocks: the implementation of the first block is related to evaluating the potential of the territory to establish innovative educational clusters and requires a detailed description of the characteristics and the constituents of such a potential (innovative, educational and intellectual (human resource)); the implementation of the second block is related to the selection of quantitative parameters that will measure the feasibility of creating innovative educational clusters in the region, and which the dissertation suggests to assess according to the data obtained while analyzing the quantitative characteristics of the main socio-economic prerequisites for creating innovative educational clusters within the region. The final step of the evaluation procedure permits to combine the results obtained from the two blocks of the procedure and therefore receive valid and exhaustive conclusions regarding the readiness of a particular region and opportunities it can provide for launching and successful functioning of innovative educational clusters. The thesis offers and substantiates a methodological approach to comprehensively assess the possibilities of creating innovative educational cluster forms of regional development in the region. Also, the potential of the region to create innovative educational development cluster forms is investigated. The tools to diagnose the prerequisites for creating innovative educational cluster forms of the regional development are provided. The research systematically presents the foreign experience of executing the regulatory policy in the process of creating innovative educational cluster forms of regional development. The conceptual foundation for building the cluster policy of the region is formulated. The research substantiates a conceptual approach to creating a business incubator on the premises of a higher education institution. A method of building a roadmap for the innovative and educational development of the region has been developed.