Baltic Journal of Economic Studies  

87

Vol. 9 No. 5, 2023 

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms 
of the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0

1 Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Ukraine (corresponding author)
E-mail: artyrgaragulya1@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5829-2112
2 Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Ukraine
E-mail: vladsuslov1777@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6345-5131
3 Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Ukraine 
E-mail: alexgorovoy2009@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8155-7905

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30525/2256-0742/2023-9-5-87-93

MANAGEMENT OF ECONOMIC SECURITY OF ENTERPRISES  
IN THE CONTEXT OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Arthur Harahulia1, Vladyslav Suslov2, Oleksiy Horovoy3

Abstract. The subject of the study is the management of economic security of enterprises in the context of  
digital transformations. Methodology. The research uses general scientific methods, in particular: theoretical 
generalisation; methods of analysis and synthesis and statistical analysis, and the graphical method to visualise  
the results of the study. The article is aimed at highlighting the results of a study of economic security  
management of enterprises in the context of digital transformations. Conclusion. The article analyses the  
economic security of enterprises in the context of global challenges. The impact of the war on the country's 
economy as a whole is underestimated and has far-reaching studies at both the macro- and micro-levels.  
It has been determined that at the beginning of the full-scale Russia's invasion on the territory of Ukraine, 
there was a significant reduction in the main economic indicators of enterprises' performance compared to the  
previous year. The analysis showed that the volume of products (goods, services) sold in 2022 decreased by  
3,8 million UAH compared to the previous year, but remained at the level of the years before the pandemic, as  
well as the nature of the increase in business activity due to completely closed ports and an inadequate  
logistics system. At the same time, the number of business entities decreased by 223 thousand units, but  
their number only increased during the pandemic. It was noted that the acute shortage of personnel begins 
in 2022 with a significant decrease in the number of employees by 1,4 thousand persons. It was emphasised  
that over the past ten years, the number of employed workers has fluctuated around 8 thousand people and  
has not decreased, and in 2022 this figure was 7,5 thousand people. The economic security management  
system was improved, which is based on security levels and has a complex operating system that takes into  
account the external environment (customers, competitors, suppliers, etc.). A system for managing economic 
security in the context of digital transformation is proposed, based on the characteristics of the sublevels of  
security – financial, economic, social, information, environmental and security. It is emphasized that the main 
element of improving the economic security management system is to take into account the strengthening  
tools, such as risk insurance, forecasting, modelling, etc.

Key words: economic security management, digital transformation, information technology, war, system, 
strengthening tools.

JEL Classification: А10, D29, G22, O10

1. Introduction
Under the conditions of war, domestic enterprises, 

both large and small, are increasingly at risk. Under  
the constant all-out bombardment, a significant 
part of the enterprises was destroyed, which led to 
the impossibility of carrying out the main activities. 
Today, there are practically no areas where the enemy 
would carry out all-out bombardment, resulting 
in the destruction of industrial and even civilian 

infrastructure, which in turn does not ensure the 
effectiveness of enterprise security management.  
In addition to conducting hostilities, the enemy also 
uses various attacks on enterprises to intimidate the 
civilian population.

With the beginning of a full-scale invasion, 
a large part of enterprises suffered from cyber-attacks, 
which also affected their ineffective management of  
economic security. In the conditions of digital 



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transformation of enterprises, it is necessary to  
ensure the increase of their information security,  
which in turn will affect the economic security.  
Practical experience shows that ineffective  
management of economic and information security  
of enterprises leads to their liquidation, closure, in  
the best case to reorganisation or merger. A significant 
number of managers are failing to anticipate and 
ignore the modern challenges of digital business 
transformation, trying to save money or using  
outdated technologies, all of which will lead to an  
increase in cyber-attacks by hackers. The inaction 
of managers in this direction will only increase 
the information threat to enterprises, reduce their 
competitiveness, affect performance indicators and  
lead to the deterioration of economic security 
management. Therefore, the analysis of the current  
state of economic security of enterprises in the 
conditions of global challenges and threats under  
the influence of digital transformation is quite  
relevant and requires research.

The purpose of the article is to manage the economic 
security of enterprises in the context of digital 
transformation.

2. Analysis of Economic Security  
of Enterprises in the Context  
of Global Challenges

One of the biggest challenges for domestic 
enterprises was the Russia's full-scale invasion on the 
territory of Ukraine, with a large part of the country 
under occupation, which made it impossible to 
relocate enterprises and led to their complete closure. 
A significant number of businesses were able to 
relocate to safer areas, which was also facilitated by  
the government's relocation programme.

The main tasks of the Enterprise Relocation 
Programme are to select a location for the company's 
facilities; provide assistance with transportation to  
the new location; assist in the resettlement of  
employees and the search for new employees; assist  
in the restoration of logistics, the purchase of raw 
materials and the search for sales markets (Enterprise 
Relocation Programme, 2023). Naturally, the 
programme envisages that, once the war is over, the 
companies will return to the areas from which they  
were relocated and become a powerful engine for 
economic recovery in the regions concerned.

However, it is worth considering the authors' 
opinion that "the duration of hostilities will  
determine the outcome of internal and external 
migration. As the duration of the war increases, 
the likelihood of successful resolution of housing  
problems and employment difficulties increases, 
and the likelihood of migrants returning to their 
previous places of residence decreases. The massive 

destruction of infrastructure may be another reason 
for displacement. Even after the war ends, it will  
take time to rebuild housing and social  
infrastructure. Most of the destroyed areas will be 
uninhabitable or almost uninhabitable for some time  
to come" (Onyshchenko, Masliі, & Zagorulko, 2023).

Consequently, it is necessary to be realistic about  
the possibility of companies returning to the areas  
from which they were evicted. Currently, a large 
part of the de-occupied territories have no access 
to electricity, water or gas, and most of the fields 
are landmined. The constant bombardment by the  
enemy is destroying civilian and industrial infra-
structure, making it impossible to run households 
in these areas. All of this will discourage civilians  
from returning to their homes and starting from  
scratch, so it is possible that the economy will return,  
but not to pre-war levels. The main threats and  
challenges to the economic security of businesses 
include war and active hostilities in most of the  
territory of Ukraine.

It is only in the conditions of sustainable  
development of the economy that it is possible to 
create and ensure all other components (types) of 
national security. In turn, it should be noted that  
the state of economic security today is unsatisfactory 
and problematic, existing theoretical approaches to 
understanding the meaning, essence and priorities 
of the components of economic security need to be 
revised. The issue of economic security seems to be 
one of the highest priorities. The issue of creating  
a new concept of economic security deserves  
special attention, which should be built, first of 
all, taking into account the counteraction to new  
challenges and threats. This will encourage the search 
for new ideas and effective mechanisms for solving 
pressing problems (Lutsyk, 2023).

The impact of the war on the country's economy 
as a whole is underestimated and has far-reaching 
consequences at both macro and micro levels. 
According to the data of the State Statistics 
Service of Ukraine, in 2022 there was a significant 
decrease in the main economic indicators of 
business activity compared to the previous year  
(Figure 1).

The volume of products (goods, services) sold in 
2022 decreased by 3.8 million UAH compared to 
the previous year, but remained at the level of the 
COVID-19 years, which were also characterised 
by a deterioration in the activities of most business  
entities due to completely closed ports and an 
unregulated logistics system. The number of  
business entities decreased by 223 thousand, but 
their number only increased during the pandemic.  
In 2022, an acute staffing crisis began with a  
significant reduction in the number of employees  
by 1.4 thousand persons. It should also be noted  



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Vol. 9 No. 5, 2023 

that over the past ten years, the number of employed 
workers has fluctuated around 8 thousand people and 
has not decreased, and in 2022 this figure reached 
7,5 thousand people.

The war in Ukraine will also have a global impact 
on economies linked by foreign trade. The majority 
of experts, analysts and scientists note that the 
consequences of the war for the national economy  
will be worse than after the global financial crisis.

In the conditions of modern transformational 
trends caused by the impact of digitalisation of  
business, threats of local and global factors of socio-
economic development, structural shifts in the 
international economic space, a necessary component  
of the effective functioning of the enterprise in the 
context of ensuring its economic security and the 
application of preventive management measures  
should be continuous innovative development. 

In general, the tools and methods of preventive 
management are characterised by flexibility and 
mobility, and their use affects the improvement of 
the effectiveness of the functioning of management 
units through constant monitoring and ensuring the 
prevention of crisis situations (Zaliznyuk, Safonik, & 
Kaya, 2022).

Today, the economic security management of 
enterprises is negatively affected by various cyber  
attacks by hackers, which leads to the suspension 
of business operations and the disruption of  
information systems. Accordingly, a significant  
number of business entities are constantly improving 
their information systems or looking for their  
protection in order to reduce the impact of cyberattacks.

In 2022, the cyber defence unit of the Computer 
Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) 
registered 2.8 times more cyber incidents than in the 

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2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Volumes of products (goods, services) sold, million UAH 
Number of economic entities, units
Number of employed workers, thousands of people

Figure 1. Key economic indicators of the company's operations for 2010–2022

Source: compiled according to the data of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine (State Statistics Service of Ukraine, 2023)



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pre-war year. The number of threats with a geolocation 
linked to the Russian Federation increased by 26%.  
One in 10 attacks was aimed at the financial 
sector or software developers (Fintech armor for 
hundreds of thousands of dollars. During the war, 
cyber-attacks on financial businesses became more  
frequent. How companies protect themselves from 
attacks, 2023).

Most cyber-attacks are aimed at state-owned 
monopoly companies that keep the social infra- 
structure functioning, in order to increase discontent 
and further repress society. Among the main  
companies affected by cyber-attacks are the energy 
holding DTEK, Naftogaz, Ukrposhta and State  
Service of Ukraine for Transport Safety. Every year, 
energy companies spend more than 100 million UAH 
just to renew licences for cyber protection systems. 
The energy sector has had liquidity problems since 
the beginning of the war. The lack of money for  
cyber defence is compensated by donors.

The development of international cooperation to 
strengthen Ukraine's cyber resilience is a priority  
task to prevent global information threats, ensure  
a high level of quality in cybercrime investigations, 
arrest and prosecution of criminals, and overcome 
cybersecurity issues. At the same time, there are  
areas of cybersecurity that negatively affect  
Ukraine's position in these rankings and need  
to be improved. In particular, the current level of 
contribution to global cybersecurity is low, the  
level of protection of digital services is insufficient,  
and the area of military cyber operations is 
underdeveloped.

Considering Ukraine's achievements in cyberspace, 
it is legitimate to define it as an equal participant in 
the international arena in the field of cyber security. 
The future tasks should be the further improvement  
of information protection systems of critical 
infrastructure objects based on the best global  
practices, as well as the coordination of actions  
with international organisations to counter threats 
related to the development of the digital economy  
and information society. Building an effective 
cybersecurity system in terms of comprehensive 
counteraction to cyber threats will help to create 
a preventive mechanism to counteract threats and 
localise them, and proactively respond to dynamic 
changes in cyberspace (Onyshchenko, & Hlushko, 
2022).

Therefore, when formulating the economic  
security policy of enterprises, management should 
take into account the information security component 
in accordance with modern challenges and  
threats, which will make it possible to reduce 
their impact on the activities of business entities  
in the future.

3. Improvement of the Economic Security 
Management System of Enterprises under  
the Influence of Digital Transformations

The accumulated experience makes it possible to 
assert that economic security is a key characteristic  
of stable functioning and achievement of the  
required development indicators of both individual 
business entities and society as a whole. The security 
of economic processes is characterised by numerous 
political, legal and economic mechanisms and 
instruments that help protect economic interests.  
In a broad sense, economic security can be viewed  
as the ability of the institutional and organisational 
system to protect the interests of business entities  
on the basis of international and national legal  
norms and compliance with national traditions 
and business values. Innovative information and  
computer technologies that form the basis of the  
digital economy play a significant role in the 
development of all aspects of society. Digitalisation 
processes have a particularly significant impact on  
the economic activities of business entities and, 
accordingly, on their economic security. Despite 
the close attention to the problems of digitalisation 
by numerous studies, the impact of digital 
technologies on the economic security of enterprises 
has not been sufficiently studied and elaborated  
(Samoilenko, Britchenko, Levchenko, Lošonczi, 
Bilychenko, & Bodnar, 2022).

Research into the economic security of enterprises 
is always given its due role, but under the influence  
of global changes associated with digital trans-
formation, there is a need for continuous  
improvement of the management system itself.  
Finding ways to improve economic security  
management systems will enable timely response  
to new challenges and threats to enterprises. New 
systems must be built on the basis of information 
technologies, while at the same time creating a  
powerful operating system.

The modern development of the world economy 
and society is being driven by the introduction of 
key technologies that underpin the digital economy: 
blockchain, cloud computing, big data, the Internet 
of Things, cyber-physical systems. Their use leads 
to positive economic and social effects: automation 
and intensification of traditional economic and 
technological processes, creation of new branches  
of the economy; improvement of the business and 
investment climate by increasing the availability 
and efficiency of public services, transparency of 
business conditions; increasing the availability,  
quality and convenience of medical, educational,  
cultural and financial services for the population; 
creation of comfortable and safe cities for line 
(Kasianova, Kravchuk, & Koval, 2020).



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An enterprise economic security management  

system should contain virtually all information and  
have reliable protection to reduce its leakage. As 
mentioned above, businesses today operate in an 
extraordinary environment, and that is why they  
need a reliable economic security management system.

At the same time, the structure of primary and 
analytical information within the framework of the 
enterprise's economic security management system 
should be improved. The form and composition  
of the indicators of the economic, investment and 
financial questionnaires may also be changed in 
order to identify more precisely the essential and 
complementary factors that determine the dynamics  
of the economic situation of the enterprise, to adapt 
the quantitative indicators of the questionnaires 
to changes in accounting and statistical reporting.  
Layouts of the initial analytical information are 
being developed, and the methodology of thematic 
and aggregate analysis is being improved based on 
the system's information base, taking into account 
regulatory, legislative and foreign economic  
information (Andrushkiv, 2022).

That is why there is a need to improve the  
economic security management system of enterprises  
in accordance with modern conditions. This 
system should be created with the help of reliable  
information systems that will take into account 
absolutely all areas of the enterprise's activity with  
the possibility of information leakage from the outside.

According to the authors, an improved system of 
economic security management should have sublevels 
of security and be comprehensive in nature, taking 
into account the external environment (customers, 
competitors, suppliers, etc.) (Figure 2).

The proposed system for managing economic 
security in the context of digital transformation 
is based on the specificities of the sub-levels of  
security: financial, economic, social, information, 

environmental and safety. The main element is the 
consideration of strengthening tools.

In the context of digital transformation,  
enterprises must adapt their overall economic security 
system to new risks that may arise as a result of the 
introduction of digital innovations. In this regard, it 
is advisable to identify the following stages of risk 
management in the economic security system of 
enterprises undergoing digital transformation:
– Identification and diagnosis of emerging risks 
associated with digital transformation, including the 
characteristics, significance and benchmarks that will 
be used to measure the risk;
– risk minimisation (implementation of initiatives 
that meet the strategic goals of the company's digital 
transformation);
– monitoring of the state of economic security of 
the enterprise (calculation of key indicators of each 
subsystem of the overall economic security system, 
determination of the overall level of economic 
security, qualitative and quantitative analysis of 
work with identified risks, analysis and verification 
of the implementation of plans) (Bilychenko, &  
Kasianova, 2023).

The need to take into account digital transformation 
in the development and reconstruction of socio-
economic systems is also addressed by the work 
of well-known scientists (Irtyshcheva, Pavlenko, 
Boiko, Stehnei, Kramarenko, Hrysyna, & Ishchenko, 
2022; Kramarenko, Irtyshcheva, Stehnei, Boiko, 
Nadtochii, Pavlenko, Rakipov, Hryshyna, Sirenko, &  
Ishchenko, 2022).

The economic security of an enterprise in the  
context of digital transformations is considered as 
a state of protection against external and internal 
threats to the stability of the enterprise's economic 
space caused by transformational processes of  
various origins, with respect to its corporate interests.  
It is determined that the development of the modern 

Security 
sub-

levels

EnvironmentEnvironment

Entrance Exit

Employees, 
customers

financial

economiс

social

informative 

ecological

security

Buyers, 
suppliers, 

competitors

Strengthening tools

Figure 2. Economic security management system in the context of digital transformation

Source: compiled by the authors



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system of economic security of enterprises lies in 
its adaptation to the use in the context of digital 
transformations. The theoretical foundations for the 
formation of an adapted system of economic security  
of enterprise are formed, the basic principles of 
adaptation are formulated; the main stages of  
adaptation are allocated; a structured model 
of the adapted system of economic security of 
digital transformations of enterprises is developed 
(Polupanova, Khadzhynova, & Zaneta, 2022).

4. Conclusions
The article analyses the economic security of 

enterprises in the context of global challenges. The 
impact of the war on the country's economy as a  
whole is underestimated and has far-reaching 
consequences at both the macro and micro levels.  
It has been determined that at the beginning of  
the Russia's full-scale invasion on the territory of 
Ukraine, there was a significant reduction in the  
main economic indicators of enterprises compared 
to the previous year. The analysis showed that the  
volume of products (goods, services) sold in 
2022 decreased by 3,8 million UAH compared to the 
previous year, but remained at the level of the years  
of the covid pandemic, which were also characterised  

by a deterioration in the activities of most business 
entities due to completely closed ports and an 
unregulated logistics system. At the same time, 
the number of business entities decreased by  
223 thousand units but during the pandemic, their 
number only increased. It was determined that the 
acute shortage of personnel begins in 2022 with  
a significant reduction of employed workers by 
1,4 million persons. It was emphasised that over  
the past ten years, the number of employed workers 
has fluctuated around 8 thousand people and has  
not decreased, and in 2022 this figure reached 
7,5 thousand people.

The economic security management system 
developed, which is based on security sub-levels  
and has a comprehensive operating system, taking 
into account the external environment (customers, 
competitors, suppliers, etc.). The proposed system  
for managing economic security in the context  
of digital transformation is based on the specifics 
of the sublevels of security – financial, economic, 
social, information, environmental and security.  
It is emphasized that the main element of the 
improved economic security management 
system is to take into account the reinforcing  
instruments, such as risk insurance, forecasting, 
modelling, etc.

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Received on: 13th of October, 2023
Accepted on: 27th of November, 2023
Published on: 28th of December, 2023