The system of factors and an adaptive-integrated model for managing the competitiveness of wood-processing enterprises (SMART-WOOD)

Abstract

The competitiveness of Ukrainian wood-processing enterprises is shaped by a complex and volatile combination of internal and external factors, whose influence in 2025–2026 is markedly intensified by martial law, a shrinking raw-material base, EU-integration requirements (the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), the European Green Deal) and the need to shift toward deep wood processing. The purpose of the article is to systematize the competitiveness factors of wood-processing enterprises into a coherent multi-level system and to substantiate an adaptive-integrated conceptual model for competitiveness management (SMART-WOOD). Based on a generalization of recent research (2018–2026) and the application of systemic, process and adaptive approaches, seven groups of internal factors (raw-material, production-technological, innovation, personnel, financial-economic, marketing, organizational-managerial) and seven groups of external factors (resource, market, institutional-legal, environmental, scientific-technological, logistical, socio-economic and geopolitical) were identified and preliminarily ranked by degree of influence through expert-analytical generalization. It is established that raw-material and production-technological internal factors, together with resource, institutional-legal and socio-economic and geopolitical external factors, exert the strongest influence on the sector’s competitiveness. A conceptual model SMART-WOOD was developed and formalized as a six-component system ⟨F, M, T, I, R, FB⟩ that integrates the subsystem of influencing factors, the controlling subsystem, functional management mechanisms (production-technological, innovation, marketing, financial-economic, personnel, environmental), a management toolkit (SWOT and PESTLE analysis, Balanced Scorecard, KPI, ERP/CRM/BI systems), a system of performance indicators, and an adaptive feedback mechanism. The scientific novelty lies in combining systemic, process and adaptive approaches within a single sector-specific competitiveness management model that ensures cyclicity, continuous adjustment of managerial decisions and consideration of the specific features of wood-processing production. The findings provide a methodological basis for the subsequent integral assessment of the competitiveness of wood-processing enterprises and for substantiating managerial decisions aimed at its improvement under conditions of digital transformation, greening of production and European integration.