Marketing i Menedžment Innovacij (Dec 2014)
Evaluation of efficiency of innovation projects in housing and communal services
Abstract
The aim of the article. The purpose of the article is improvement of theoretical foundations and development of methodical recommendations as to evaluation of the effectiveness of innovative projects in the field of housing and communal services. The proposed complex parameter for evaluating the innovative project allows clearly and unambiguously evaluating alternative innovation projects in the field of housing and communal services considering all aspects of implementation and realization and choosing the best of them. This will significantly increase management efficiency of innovation projects in dynamic conditions of the market environment. The results of the analysis. Evaluation of innovative projects should be based on the following principles: 1. Consideration and analysis of the innovative project throughout its life cycle (accounting period) – since the moment of emergence of new ideas until the moment of commercialization and practical application. 2. Modeling flows of products, resources, money medium at all stages (phases) of the innovative project implementation. 3. Harmonizing conditions of comparing different variants of the innovation project. 4. The principle of taking into account the time factor in estimating the parameters of the innovation project and its external economic environment. 5. The effectiveness of the innovative project is evaluated by comparing the cash flow formed during the exploitation of the project and the initial investments in it. The project is considered profitable if the initial return of all deposits at an acceptable rate of return for the project participants is ensured. 6. Mandatory adjustment of both initial investments and the amount of cash flow to the present value. 7. The process of discounting all cash expenditures and receipts is carried out by the discount rates, which are selected depending on the innovation project characteristics. 8. The principle of alternatives taking into consideration various possibilities of using resources, ways to achieve the goal of innovation project, choosing the best options of the project decisions. 9. Evaluation of the innovation project effectiveness should be done by comparing the situation “without the project” and “with the project”, rather than situations “before the project” and “after the project”. 10. Taking into account all the most significant consequences of the innovation project: economic, scientific, technical, social, environmental. 11. The multi-stage evaluation at the stages of substantiating the volume of innovation costs, feasibility studies, choice of funding schemes, monitoring, etc. At each stage the project the cost is to be confirmed. 12. Taking into account the impact of inflation, uncertainty and risk, as well as possibility of using for its implementation different currencies. Evaluation of effectiveness of innovation projects in the housing and communal services is based on methods of the Ministry of Economy and European Integration of Ukraine and the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine by supplementing and specifying its generalized aspects. According to this methodology, the basic indicators recognized in the international practice, which accumulate benefits from the introduction of scientific and technological development and innovation, and are used to evaluate the economic efficiency of projects are: discounted net revenue (net present value); profitability index; payback period of the project; internal rate of return. The main types of effects on introducing innovations in housing and communal services making up the annual cash flows are: - economic – is to obtain economic results from introducing innovations, reducing costs and resource consumption; - science and technology – is reduced to improving the scientific and technical level of housing and communal services, namely: improve the parameters of facilities and technologies, components of the engineering infrastructure of the city, raising moral and technical qualities of buildings and extending their service life, introduction of new technological means of production, materials and products. Scientific and technical effect could be valued on the following directions: saving power consumption, material components, reducing losses resulted from downtime caused by malfunction of the machinery, expenditures on its repairing, etc.; - social – reflects changes in conditions of human activity at work and in society. The social efficiency of housing and communal services must be estimated on the basis of parameters that characterize the degree of public satisfaction with the provision of appropriate services (number of unfulfilled on time requests, increase or decrease in complaints, etc.), as well as by determining the degree of satisfaction of its employees themselves (conditions and salary, premium systems, training and retraining, etc.); - ecological – is in positive environmental changes caused by the use of technological innovations to reduce environmental pollution (reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, pollution of wastewater in general water removal, bringing to the requirements of environmental safety the condition of dumps for disposing solid waste, etc.) and aimed at the rational use of natural resources. The annual cash flow for each year of the innovation project life cycle equals to the sum of the above four types of effects. To make allowance for the uncertainties and risks that affect the successful functioning of the innovative project, the following methods can be used: correction of the project parameters; formalized description of the risk; formalized description of uncertainty. Conclusions and directions of further researches. The proposed complex parameter for evaluating the innovative project that brings together scientific and technical, economic, social and environmental effects taking into account the time factor, risk and uncertainty of the project implementation. This complex parameter allows clearly and unambiguously evaluating alternative innovation projects in the field of housing and communal services considering all aspects of implementation and realization and choosing the best of them. This will significantly increase the management efficiency of innovation projects in dynamic conditions of the market environment. Prospects for further research in this direction are to analyze the relationship between the components of annual receipts and justification of rates and corresponding volumes of state compensation at determining the economic effect from innovation implementation in the field of housing and communal services.
