EVALUATION OF THE SUSTAINABILITY OF ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT IN THE CONDITIONS OF ECONOMIC UNSTABILITY

Abstract

The analysis of theoretical approaches to defining the essence of the concept of sustainable development of various economic entities was made in the article. The essential features of sustainable development have been systematized by the author. Also, as a result of the analysis of literary sources, fundamental differences were identified between the theoretical concepts of sustainable (stable) and sustainable development of society. Based on the analysis of the data of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the dynamics of changes in the structure of assets of Ukrainian enterprises was analysed. Graphs highlighting the features of the formation of assets and liabilities of large, medium and small enterprises were built. Based on the analysis of statistical data on the sources of formation of economic assets of enterprises during 2013 - 2019, imbalances were identified that negatively affect the efficiency of their activities. In particular, the high degree of dependence of enterprises on external sources of financing leads to a steady trend of decreasing and lack of working capital to support the sustainable development of the enterprise in the long term. This problem is especially evident in medium-sized Ukrainian enterprises. At the same time, the paradox of the functioning of domestic business has been proven, namely: with an insufficient amount of working capital, Ukrainian enterprises demonstrate an increase in the level of profitability of both operating and all activities. Correlation analysis of statistical data confirmed the presence of a direct relationship between the volume of capital investments of enterprises and the level of their profitability. However, as a result of the correlation analysis, an inverse relationship was found between the amount of working capital and the amount of capital investment. The dependencies identified in this way made it possible to form the thesis about the presence of a systemic problem in enterprise management - an imbalance in the management of accounts receivable and payable. In an unstable economy, this can lead to a general crisis due to massive insolvency of enterprises. In order to prevent such a situation, a number of measures have been proposed to ensure sustainable development of enterprises by managing their accounts payable and receivable. In particular, the author proposed the introduction of a controlling system at enterprises. First of all, this concerns the system of controlling funds, which was proposed by the author. We believe that this will improve the efficiency of enterprises and at the same time reduce the risk of insolvency, which is especially important in conditions of economic instability.