Рeculiarities of Functioning of Small and Medium-Sized Entrepreneurship at the Modern Stage of Economic Development

A significant reserve for ensuring the socio-economic development of the Republic of Belarus is the rational use of the entrepreneurial potential of business entities as an important component of the economic policy of the state. The paper analyzes the main theoretical approaches to the definition of entrepreneurial activity. The versatility of approaches creates difficulties in formulating a universal term due to the change in the content of this category in the process of development of economic science. The paper proposes the author's definition of entrepreneurial activity, taking into account the modern features of its development. The value added indicator has been introduced into the concept, which will allow taking into account a part of the cost of goods (works, services) incremented by the organization, as well as assessing the efficiency of the regional economy. The development of integration processes and the fragmentation of production activities increase the number of participants in the production chain from different countries that create intermediate imports, which include the added value segmented by them. Consequently, the country's gain from foreign trade, its export and technological potential will be largely determined by the added value it creates. This kind of assessment becomes the most demanded in the analysis of trade indicators of business entities, including their foreign trade. The main criteria for classifying enterprises as large, medium and small have been analyzed in the paper. In different countries, quantitative criteria are not the same, the initial criterion is the number of employees. The difficulty in determining the criteria lies in the fact that they cannot be equivalent for all sectors of the economy and for individual countries, since there is a dependence on established practice and the goals of state policy in relation to small and medium-sized businesses. An accurate description of business entities in terms of size will make it possible to identify their features, patterns of development, advantages and disadvantages. An additional quantitative criterion for referring to business entities in the Republic of Belarus is proposed – gross revenue.