Sustainable development of economic systems: Essential content and evaluation criteria

Aim. The work aimed to present the analysis and essential content of the concept of “sustainable development” and to determine the criteria for its evaluation.

Objectives. The work seeks to analyze the features of the concept of sustainable development of economic systems in modern conditions, to identify aspects of the crisis of the concept of sustainable development, to study the content of the core of the terminological field, namely the content of the concepts of “sustainable development,” “sustainability,” “resilience,” to differentiate them and determine the criteria for their evaluation.

Methods. The scientific provisions presented in the article are obtained using the basic provisions of the concept of sustainable development and the ESG agenda, the theory of management of economic systems, the theory of assessing the effectiveness of economic actors, management of environmental and social development of economic systems, expounded in the works of famous Russian and international scientists. In the study course, the authors used the methods of scientific literature analysis.

Results. It was revealed that the concept of sustainable development is currently not effective sufficiently, which is recognized by both scientists and the initiating organization (UN). The significance of the essential content of the concepts of “sustainability,” “sustainable development,” “resilience” is determined, since a methodology and tools for assessment cannot be formulated due to the absence of clear definitions. A comparative analysis of the content of the concepts of “sustainability,” “sustainable development,” and “resilience” proposed by various scientists is performed, and a conclusion is made about the need to differentiate these concepts. The author’s statement of the content of the concepts of “sustainable development” (the development process focused on sustainability and implying balanced actions to manage the activities of the economic system) is proposed. The work proposes the criteria for assessing the concepts of “sustainability” (maintaining the main characteristics of the economic system in values close to the state of equilibrium, as a result of an adequate response to internal and external changes), “sustainable development” (study and maintenance of the process, in this connection the dynamic characteristics of the selected indicators are important), and “resilience” (initial and satisfactory values of indicators recognized as equilibrium, the system’s response to external shock effects).

Conclusions. An essential definition of the concept of “sustainable development” is formulated, the categories of “sustainability,” “sustainable development,” and “resilience” are differentiated, and the criteria for their assessment are defined.

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