FINANCIAL ARCHITECTURE OF AN ENTERPRISE: THEORETICAL APPROACHES AND CONCEPTUAL TYPOLOGY

Abstract

The article is devoted to systematizing existing scientific approaches to interpreting the financial architecture of an enterprise and substantiating its typology under conditions of global challenges. Four independent conceptual approaches are identified: the component-structural approach, focused on the configuration of capital structure, ownership structure and corporate governance; the financial-security approach, focused on financial resilience and protection against financial threats; the agency-contract approach, focused on reconciling the interests of owners, managers and creditors; and the determinant approach, focused on the endogenous and exogenous factors of financial decisions. It is shown that each approach taken separately reveals only certain aspects of this complex economic phenomenon without forming a holistic vision of it. The authors propose a delineation of the related concepts of the “financial system”, “financial architecture” and “financial management” of an enterprise: the financial system describes the composition of elements, financial architecture describes the principles of their configuration, and financial management describes the process of managerial decision-making. Financial architecture occupies the central place in this conceptual hierarchy, forming the institutional framework within which the system functions and management is exercised. The proposed typology is confirmed in practice through a comparative analysis of the financial architecture of the leading agro-industrial holdings of Ukraine – Astarta, Kernel and MHP – based on their annual reports for 2024–2025: it is established that each company implements a specific configuration of financial architecture, while in a wartime economy the financial-security dimension becomes dominant. Three criteria of an effective financial architecture of an enterprise are defined: structural balance, institutional adaptability and agency transparency. The results can serve as a basis for developing methodological approaches to assessing and optimizing the financial architecture of enterprises operating in an unstable economic environment.