The thesis dwells on theoretical principles of preventive crisis management of trade enterprises. Its management state is studied and problems of its implementation at the trade enterprises of Ukraine are determined, directions of improvement of preventive crisis management of trade enterprises are offered. Taking into account the developed intrinsic characteristics, advanced definition of "preventive crisis management" is proposed basing on the analysis of existing approaches to the interpretation of the this concept. Taking into consideration the branch direction of the thesis, the features of preventive crisis management at trade enterprises are determined. Developing and supplementing the development results of scientists, the purpose, tasks, objects, subjects, principles, specific functions and stages of the process of preventive crisis management are defined. Differences in the level of the resource potential at each enterprise led to the need of allocation of three types of preventive crisis management, which provide three different levels of response, depending on the level of resource potential of the trade enterprise. Indicator system for assessing the effectiveness of a preventive crisis management of the trade enterprise has been developed, which will enable to identify implementation weaknesses, which could be the reason for the crisis creation at the trade enterprise. Based on the results of a questionnaire survey of managers of large-, medium-sized business, small and micro business of wholesale and retail trade, the state of the arrangement of preventive crisis management at trade enterprises of Ukraine has been investigated. Economic and financial indicators of the effectiveness of preventive crisis management of trade enterprises in Ukraine were calculated and analyzed on the basis of the results of the questionnaire survey and the data of the information resource of Stock market infrastructure development agency of Ukraine (SMIDA). Organizational structure of preventive crisis management is recognized as the actual direction of improvement of this type of management as a result of the study of the practice preventive crisis management at the trade enterprises in Ukraine. Due to the fact that small enterprises do not have the opportunity to attract a crisis manager to the staff, it is proposed to assign functions of preventive crisis management to the head of the company, who is usually its owner. The organizational structure of the preventive crisis management of the medium-sized trade enterprise involves the imposition of the functions of preventive crisis management on the crisis manager. At large trade enterprises, the functions of preventive crisis management are proposed to be placed in the department of crisis management. According to the results of identification of the subjects of preventive crisis management depending on the size of the enterprise, their tasks and responsibilities are determined based on the proposed organizational structures. Taking into account the generalization of modern scientists' proposals, who study the issues of preventive crisis management, and the recommendations of the author of this thesis, a system of indicators of preventive crisis management of trade enterprises is proposed, which will allow to timely identifying the threat of a crisis. For the convenience of using the indicators in practice at trade enterprises of various sizes and types of trading activities, it is proposed to differentiate them according to the capture rate (general and partial), the role of these indicators in identifying the threat of crisis (major and auxiliary), size of enterprises (indicators of preventive crisis management of small-, medium- and large-sized enterprises) and on types of trade activity of enterprises (indicators of preventive crisis management of wholesale and retail enterprises). In order to prevent a crisis at the enterprise, methodical approaches to the development of a preventive crisis management program for trade enterprises are developed. The elements of the program and directions of their implementation are determined. The choice of the latter depends on the level of resource potential of the individual enterprise, according to which the type of preventive crisis management is determined. The level of resource potential is proposed to be determined by calculating the integral evaluation score of the level of resource potential of the trade enterprise. For the convenience of choosing the areas of implementation of individual elements of the preventive crisis management program, a matrix, which is developed in two principal components, is proposed to be used: the elements of the program and the types of preventive crisis management.
