Features of sustainable development management of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Carpathian region

Abstract

Abstract. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that enterprises of the Carpathian region operate in a resource-limited and seasonally dependent environment, where economic stability is directly determined by the ability of a business to coordinate its own activities with the reproducibility of the natural and social potential of the territory. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the approach to managing the sustainable development of small and medium-sized enterprises through the formation of a cyclical mechanism for making management decisions that takes into account the resource, social and market dependence of the enterprise's activities on the operating environment. Methods. The work uses systemic and process approaches to enterprise analysis, a method of generalizing scientific provisions on sustainable management, a comparative analysis of SME management practices, as well as logical modeling of the management cycle. The study is based on a combination of the concepts of sustainable development, strategic management and adaptive management. Results. It is proven that existing approaches to the sustainable development of SMEs mainly focus on individual practices or indicators, while the management procedure for their use remains informal. A management model is proposed, which involves sequential stages: determining the critical dependencies of the enterprise on the environment, establishing the permissible scale of activity, correcting operational processes, coordinating actions with other entities, and re-evaluating the results. It is substantiated that the effectiveness of sustainable management should be assessed through the stability of the enterprise's functioning over time, and not only through short-term growth indicators. It is shown that the integration of three contours: resource, social, and market forms a preventive management model capable of reducing the risks of economic instability. Conclusions. The developed approach translates sustainability from a declarative plane into a practical management tool and ensures the coordination of strategic and operational decisions of the enterprise with environmental conditions. The proposed mechanism can be used as a basis for the formation of management procedures for SMEs in environments with high dependence on external factors and is the basis for further applied research in the field of sustainable management.