Integrated system determinant of development strategy and assessment of business sustainability

In the current situation associated with the onset of the widespread economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, when production, financial markets, consumer demand for goods and services stopped at the same time, the concept of maintaining and developing business sustainability is becoming increasingly relevant. With fewer losses, those enterprises that can build viable business models in a timely manner have a chance to overcome the crisis. Orientation of organizations’ development strategies to the global sustainable development goals adopted by the global business community provides significant benefits for companies and increases business stability. Studies by international consultants show that Russian companies have not yet developed a full understanding of the importance and necessity of using sustainable development goals in their strategic and operational plans. The authors of the article consider five determinants that form, according to the authors, a complex system: intellectual; financial, informational, environmental and situational sustainability. The paper presents a brief description of the identified determinants and analyzes the research results of foreign and domestic scientists. It provides individual indicators, criteria, tools and methods for assessing the stability of each determinant and identifies problem areas. In practice, the assessment of the sustainability of different elements of a business is most often carried out separately from each other without taking into account their interdependence and mutual influence, which has negative consequences for balancing the strategic goals of the enterprise. The article proposes the use of a “cross-cutting” approach in assessing the sustainability of basic determinants and their integration with the global goals of sustainable development. The authors propose an element-by-element composition of the complex system of determinants (CSD), as well as describe and illustrate the three-level scheme of the relationship between the CSD and the global sustainable development goals in a structured way. The first and second levels represent global goals of sustainable development, grouped by their focus (economic, environmental, social). The third internal level (core) of the scheme is an economic entity with a set of determinants to be evaluated for their resistance to external and internal influences. The article lists the advantages of the integration of sustainable development goals in the business strategy of enterprises, which ensure the success of the business entity.