Abstract: The efficient development of the national economy largely depends on the level of support for its economic security (ES) because an independent external and internal policy that meets national interests can be pursued only in this context.

The purpose of the study is to analyze the features of managing the ES of a business entity in the context of financial instability (FI).

The relevance of solving the problem of ES for entrepreneurship as a factor of the state's ES is revealed in the article; various theoretical approaches to understanding the essence of ES for entrepreneurship, as well as FI of a business entity as a threat to ES for entrepreneurship are analyzed.

Expert opinions on priority models for assessing the financial condition of a business entity are generalized on the basis of an expert survey, and international experience in preventing bankruptcy of business entities is analyzed to compass the purpose.

Index Terms: bankruptcy, econometric model, economic security, entrepreneurship, financial instability.

Shaping a favorable, transparent, and predictable legal and economic framework for citizens to realize their right to business is an integral component of the proper socioeconomic development of the state, a primary function of state bodies in the market economy, which is required for securing the well-being of citizens and the formation of a civilized competitive environment. As such, it is advisable to discuss the relationships among the support for free entrepreneurship, favorable economic and legal environment for business, socioeconomic growth of the state, and formation of a security system for the national economy [1].

The need to strengthen the ES for entrepreneurship (in particular, as a factor of the state ES) is relevant in the context of the market economic system, since it is a vital element for the efficient functioning of the socioeconomic system of society, the mechanism for managing it, and securing its protection and development. This, in turn, determines the basis for the mutual responsibility of business and state bodies for violating the principles of creating a safe economic environment [2]. The ES for entrepreneurship plays a decisive role in strengthening the security of the national economy and is a prerequisite for its stable development. There is an interdependence between the entrepreneurship development and the provision of such functional elements of the state security as financial, social, technological, food, foreign economic, demographic, power, and environmental ones [3]. Realization of the place of the ES for entrepreneurship in the security system of the national economy allows for more detailed approach to the justification of the content of this economic category and the specifics of its management in the context of FI.

S.G. Simonov (et al.) [4], S.E. Lelyukhin (et al.) [5], and Yu.A. Burtsev [6] define the ES for entrepreneurship as the state of protection of the entrepreneurs' interests from the action of various sources of threats. At the same time, A.V. Rodionov and A.A. Krut focus their attention only on threats of the external environment, which constantly change in the market economy [7]. However, the ES for entrepreneurship is the ability of the economic system to ensure its sustainability in various conditions of both external and internal environment, including the adverse ones [8].

M.N. Dudin (et al.) [9], A.Yu. Pavlov, and V.N. Batova [10] support the approach according to which the ES for entrepreneurship refers to the ability to develop and reproduce, even despite various external and internal threats. At the same time, according to D. Schatz [11], the ES for entrepreneurship is determined by factors that reflect the independence, resistance to threats, and the possibility of improvement. The researchers (A.C. Bertay, D. Gong, M. Niemimaa, J. Järveläinen, S.R. Ronis, and others) believe that the ES for entrepreneurship should be understood as a set of controlled conditions of operation, under which a business entity is able to protect against internal and external threats, preserve and reproduce its financial, economic, industrial, human resource, scientific, and technical potential [12]–[14]. At the same time, the level of the ES for entrepreneurship depends on how the managers of the business entity and the responsible specialists are efficient, i.e., whether they can avoid or counter possible threats and efficiently eliminate the consequences of negative impacts of the external and internal environment [15]. FI of a business entity is one of such threats [16].

The financial stability at the macro level mainly refers to the state of equilibrium in the system operation, where the financial system efficiently performs its key economic functions, such as resource allocation, risk transfer, and making payments, and can do so in the event of shocks, stressful situations, and periods of profound structural changes [17]. The financial sustainability is primarily considered as a property of the financial system to return to equilibrium after cessation of the impact of certain negative factors [18]. According to V.N. Alferov, the financial stability of the company is the state and distribution of its financial resources, which ensure the company development, its solvency and investment attractiveness in terms of tolerable risk [19].

At the same time, T. Kovaleva equates these two concepts and explores them much broader, not reducing only to the state of the financial system. In particular, T. Kovaleva believes that the financial sustainability reflects the property of the entire economic system rather than the financial system in the narrow sense, and should be understood as the state of its operation, when a) it is in a dynamic state of financial equilibrium; or b) its deviation from equilibrium lies within the prescribed limits in case of exogenous or endogenous shocks, and it is able to return to financial equilibrium mode [20].

FI is primarily associated with a specific situation where "the economy operation potentially deteriorates with price fluctuations of financial assets or the inability of financial institutions to meet their contractual obligations" [21], when "prices of some key financial assets deviate sharply from their fundamentals, and the operation of credit markets is thrilled, due to which the aggregate expenditures deviate significantly from the normal level" [22]. As a result, the functioning of the key elements of the financial system is disrupted, and the latter is unable to withstand shocks and prevent their destructive impact on the real economy [23].