Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol 12, No 4 (2019)

Tools for assessing the sustainability of development of territories with regard to cluster effects

Irina Sergeevna Ferova, Elena Valerievna Lobkova, Ekaterina Nikolaevna Tanenkova, Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kozlova

Abstract


Problems and the search for sustainable development of the territories cause serious concern to authorities around the world. The choice of methodological approaches for assessment and monitoring, indicators as criteria of sustainability and ways of their processing is an important conceptual framework that helps to effectively promote the development of managed areas.
This study is aimed at finding and analyzing existing approaches and tools for monitoring territorial development, developing its own methodological and methodological framework for assessing the sustainability of territories in order to solve socio-economic problems. At the same time, the main conceptual and methodological prerequisite that distinguishes the proposed approach, in our opinion, should be taking into account the effects of interregional, intersectoral interaction or, in other words, the effects of cluster overflows. It was revealed that among the authors there is still no consensus not only on theoretical aspects, but also on methodological issues of the monitoring procedure and tools for assessing the sustainability of development, especially in the context of the cluster approach.
The article presents an analysis of the main methodological approaches to assessing the sustainable development of systems at various levels (national and regional economies, territories, industries, enterprises, products). A systematization of the approaches and tools used by scientists from different countries, international organizations and institutions has been carried out. The advantages, disadvantages and limitations of the practical application of the selected methodological approaches are indicated. The essence of the TOPSIS method as a tool for assessing the sustainability of the development of territories, taking into account the multiplicative effects of inter-regional and inter-sectoral interaction, is presented. It is shown that the cluster approach is an effective tool for managing the sustainable development of territorial systems.