Systemic Approach to Evaluating External Factors Influencing the Resource Potential of the Catering Industry

One of the defining sectoral features of the catering business as a component of a national economy is its increased sensitivity to changes occurring in the economic situation, environment and business practices. It is a priori impossible to take into account the absolute majority of factors influencing the process of resource potential formation, so it is necessary to determine the set of those factors that have a direct or indirect impact on the catering business in general and resource potential in particular, as well as on the formation of their comprehensive evaluation system. The article is aimed at evaluating the impact of these factors on the resource potential of enterprises in the catering industry. The macroenvironment is analyzed as a set of external factors of indirect impact by the following indices: GDP, investment, consumer price index, household income. The dualistic nature of the impact made by external factors of indirect impact is established, whereas these factors can be both opportunities and threats to the catering industry depending on certain criteria of the international economic situation. A comprehensive analysis of the meso environment from the standpoint of dividing impact factors in two groups: the market group (number of business entities in catering industry; gross output and volume of sales of goods; price indices for goods and services) and resource group (financial results of the catering industry and services; investment volume and structure in this area; employment and labor costs; information technologies usage). The presence and hidden sources by types of resources are established. Synthesis of the impact areas of external factors on the activity of catering business entities is made based on a symbiosis of the following methods: PEST-analysis, SWOT-analysis, PESTEL-analysis. A set of evaluation areas of factors influencing the formation of the resource potential of an enterprise is created, providing for the application of the distribution criterion depending on the area of evaluating external factors of indirect impact. The general economic indicator (GDP) is suggested to be used as a distribution criterion, whose range of values will indicate the transition of a particular index to the plane of "threat" or "opportunity"