THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES OF FORMATION AND ESTIMATION OF THE FINANCIAL POTENTIAL OF SMALL ENTERPRISES’ INVESTMENT ACTIVITY

In many countries, small businesses have a significant impact on the total gross domestic product. However, in Ukraine, the opportunities of small businesses to ensure the economic growth of the state are not sufficiently used yet. Among the reasons for this phenomenon is the insufficiently high rate of economic development of domestic small businesses, which, among other things, is due to the low level of investment activity of many small enterprises in Ukraine. In turn, the low volume of investment activity of such enterprises is also because the owners and managers of these enterprises are not competent enough to form and assess the financial potential of investment activities of business entities. Given this, the study aims to develop theoretical and methodological principles for the formation and evaluation of the financial potential of small enterprises' investment activities. The economic content of the concept of the strategy of formation of the financial potential of small enterprises' investment activity is considered. Classification of factors influencing the magnitude of this potential has been developed. In particular, the primary and secondary, deterministic and non-deterministic, positive and negative factors that are directly or indirectly involved in the formation of the financial potential of small enterprises' investment activities are highlighted. It is established that the process of such formation involves the transition from the existing to the strategic financial potential of investment activities of economic entities. The main ways of such transition are identified. Indicators for assessing the existing and strategic financial potential of investment activities of small enterprises are proposed. The connection between these indicators is established, and we perform their decomposition. In particular, the amount of the available financial potential of the business entity is presented as the sum of the opportunities to use the company's own funds, as well as obtaining loans and borrowed funds to finance investment projects. The results of the study can be used in planning the investment activities of small enterprises, in particular, in justifying the rational parameters of financial support for these activities. Key words: