Ukraine lags behind the developed countries in technological and economic spheres, by average income per capita, by renovation of production equipment, etc. Instead, comparatively high level of labour resources’ qualification and intellectual capacity remain to be the competitive advantage. Based on the theory of competitive advantages and current EU smart specialization strategy, it is possible to focus on technology-intensive industries oriented on exports to secure the countries’ sustainable development. The state of innovation activity of enterprises of industry, entrepreneurship sectors and regions is considered. The structure of the types of innovative activities of Ukrainian industrial enterprises for 2010-2017 includes internal and external impacts, such as the purchase of equipment and software, training of employees, etc. Statistical, table, questionnaire, factor analysis methods were used. The comparative analysis provides an innovative index of Ukraine and its 10 components (human resources, attractive research systems, innovation friendly environment, finance and support, firm investments, innovators, linkages, intellectual assets, employment impacts, sales impacts) calculated by EU economic experts according to the methodology The European Innovation Scoreboard. Based on the answers of the managers of small businesses, the bottlenecks of innovation management are grounded: internal (qualifications of managers and specialists), limited financial resources, risk of activities diversification) and external (corruption, formal approach of authorities and institutional infrastructure). The paper proves the reasonability of the state policy of further investment development and stimulation of the IT sector due to its low material resources, proper system of education of specialists, legal support and fiscal policy. The record high growth rate of the information services market and the corresponding high-intellectual cluster of specialists allows predicting the integration of the national industry into the international division of labor from the angle of geopolitical smart specialization. 

innovation, entrepreneurship, knowledge intensity, innovation processes, foreign economic activity, IT sector