Tools for optimizing social investment to enhance the economic security of business entities

The article substantiates the theoretical and methodological foundations of optimizing social investing to enhance the economic security of business entities amid global transformations. It emphasizes that social investing is viewed not only as an element of corporate social responsibility but also as a strategic tool for ensuring business resilience to crisis impacts, forming social capital, increasing trust in the enterprise, and strengthening its reputational and personnel stability. Within the study, the evolution of scientific approaches to evaluating social investments – economic, social, and ESG approaches – is analyzed, and the feasibility of supplementing them with a security-oriented approach is justified. This approach takes into account the ability of social programs to reduce uncertainty, enhance enterprise adaptability, and strengthen trust in relationships between business, employees, and society. A concept of a socio-security approach is proposed, within which social investments are considered as a multiplicative resource for resilience and development, and an original toolkit for quantitative assessment of socio-security effectiveness (ISBE – Indicator of Social and Business Security Effectiveness) is developed. The proposed model allows integrating economic, social, environmental, and security indicators into a single index, ensuring an objective quantitative evaluation of social investment outcomes. The methodology includes procedures for normalizing indicators and a scale for interpreting results. The practical significance of the developed toolkit lies in creating a universal analytical foundation for strategic management of social investments by enterprises in the context of strengthening their economic security. The use of the ISBE model enables comparative analysis of the effectiveness of social programs, evaluation of their contribution to risk reduction, optimization of cost structures, and formation of sustainable socio-economic development strategies. The research results hold practical value for Ukrainian enterprises during the post-war recovery period, when business social responsibility becomes not only a moral obligation but also a key condition for ensuring competitiveness and long-term security of the economic system.