THE ORGANISATIONAL AND ECONOMIC MECHANISM FOR MANAGING THE COMPETITIVENESS OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ENTITIES: A SUBSYSTEM-BASED FRAMEWORK AND A MEASUREMENT-ORIENTED CLASSIFICATION OF FACTORS

The concept of an "organisational-economic mechanism" is widely used in post-Soviet management research; however, it is rarely defined in a manner that enables its components to be measured and linked to the factors influencing them. This paper develops a subsystem-based framework for the mechanism of competitiveness management in entrepreneurial entities, together with a classification of factors designed to facilitate empirical measurement. Drawing on a comparative analysis of approaches to competitiveness management published primarily between 2021 and 2025, structural-functional decomposition, and typological classification, the study conceptualises the mechanism as three interconnected subsystems (supporting, functional, and target) that influence the parameters of the management system through organisational and economic levers. Factors are classified according to twelve criteria, with each criterion linked to its point of influence within the mechanism and its implications for measurement. These include the risk of ecological fallacy when different levels of analysis are combined, the need to incorporate mediating variables when examining indirect factors, and the potential for common method bias when relying exclusively on perceptual assessments. Six substantive groups of factors are mapped onto specific subsystems, demonstrating that assigning equal weights to all factor groups is not methodologically justified. Furthermore, the study establishes that the principal distinction between categories of entrepreneurial entities lies in the degree of management formalisation rather than revenue alone, highlighting the need for category-specific approaches to developing the mechanism. The proposed framework provides a methodological basis for constructing management quality indices and designing targeted support measures in Uzbekistan and comparable transition economies.