REVIEW OF THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO DETERMINING THE COMPETITIVENESS OF A FIRM

The purpose of this article is to consider the definition of a firm's competitiveness on the basis of scientific works of domestic and foreign authors, which will help to consider this category in more detail from the point of view of various authorship and identify the main criteria of competitiveness, which, according to the authors, are key in determining the high competitiveness of a firm. A retrospective direction of analysis and synthesis will help to track the evolution of competitiveness from the standpoint of the main criterion put forward by the author and formulate an actual definition of this category, which together will give a clear understanding of the assessment of this economic category and will be able to reflect the essence of already existing theoretical approaches to determining the competitiveness of a firm. The results of the analysis can be used as a theoretical basis for studying the evolution of the definition of the competitiveness of a company both for classes in the classroom and for independent study. The clearly formulated essence of determining the competitiveness of a firm in the future can become the basis for conducting research on the main criteria for the competitiveness of a firm, methods for assessing the competitiveness of a firm and the formation of a system of economic indicators for assessing the competitiveness of a firm, however, due to the specificity and relative novelty of this economic category, namely its close connection with a multitude of external factors that affect the change in its essence over time, and in particular constant technical progress and digitalization of the economy, there is a high probability of losing the relevance of a number of formulated theoretical points that are relevant for a given period of time, which will require refinement and additional study of the essence of the company's competitiveness.