EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC AND METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO UNDERSTANDING THE ECONOMIC ESSENCE OF THE CONCEPT OF "COMPETITIVENESS"

Topicality. The relevance of the research is because one of the main tasks to ensure sustainable economic development of Ukraine in modern economic conditions is to increase the level of competitiveness of both individual businesses and sectors of the economy (indicator 8.2, SDG 8). In addition, the number of existing approaches to the interpretation of the concept of "competitiveness" necessitates a careful selection of basic parameters for its calculation in practice, taking into account modern economic realities.Aim and tasks. The essence of the study is to systematize the main scientific and methodological approaches to the interpretation of the category of "competitiveness". Under this, the following tasks were identified: 1) to analyze the content of the category "competitiveness"; 2) to systematize the main stages of development of scientific and methodological approaches to understanding the concept of "competitiveness".Research results. Our analysis of literature sources has revealed a wide range of approaches to defining and clarifying the essence of the concept of "competitiveness". Having studied the literature on this issue, we were able to choose definitions that cover a wide range of definitions of "competitiveness" and reveal its essence through the prism of the main directions of economic thought. Currently, there is no single approach to its definition. Different researchers use the concept of "competitiveness" in different contexts and analyze it at different levels, such as international, national, regional, sectoral, local, entity level, individual product and/or service, with great differences in approaches to determining competitiveness factors in the temporal and spatial dimensions. This can lead to problems with understanding the essence of the concept of "competitiveness", measuring and calculating its specific values, and comparing them with each other.Conclusion. Most researchers theoretically describe competitiveness as a multidimensional relative concept and often associate it with market mechanisms. This concept is often considered by domestic and foreign scientists at the level of the national economy, industry, business entities, individual goods, and services very close to such concepts as ability, system, relative characteristics, opportunity, competitive advantage, result, and goal. In most cases, competitiveness can be defined as a complex indicator that covers a set of specific characteristics of the object under analysis, such as market share, productivity, and innovation capacity compared to an existing or imaginary benchmark.