Modern Challenges of the Functioning of Housing and Communal Services Enterprises: Directions for Improving Management Mechanisms

The article provides a comprehensive study of the current challenges to the functioning of housing and communal services in Ukraine amid full-scale war, climate change, energy instability, and digital transformation. The necessity of improving strategic management in this sector is substantiated as a key prerequisite for ensuring its resilience, efficiency, and adaptability. Based on the analysis of academic sources, statistical data, and practical experience, the study systematizes external destabilizing factors affecting the sector’s stability (war, climate change, energy resource shortages, ineffective state reforms) and outlines their impact on infrastructure integrity, the financial capacity of enterprises, and the quality of services. The study identifies key approaches to strategic management in the public utilities sector (infrastructure-oriented, digital-innovative, partnership-based, crisis-response, European integration, and stakeholder approaches) and analyzes their strengths and limitations. The shortcomings of existing management models are summarized, including fragmented planning, weak digital integration, lack of crisis mechanisms, and insufficient public involvement. The authors propose a conceptual model for strategic management of public utilities enterprises, based on a synthesis of systemic, resource-oriented, crisis-responsive, and adaptive approaches. The proposed model encompasses all stages of the strategic cycle – from the analysis of external and internal environments to the monitoring and adjustment of strategies – adapted to conditions of multifactor instability. Particular attention is paid to the implementation of modern strategic control tools (Balanced Scorecard), digital technologies (SCADA, smart meters, GIS analytics), the development of public-private partnerships, and the strengthening of institutional capacity at the community level. It is demonstrated that the implementation of the proposed concept can reduce operating costs, increase customer satisfaction, attract investment, and enhance the energy and operational resilience of enterprises. Practical recommendations are proposed for implementing adaptive strategic management under martial law, including the development of strategic competencies among managers, the integration of strategy into corporate culture, scenario planning, and cooperation at the local level. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the formulation of an integrated concept of strategic management in the public utilities sector, which takes into account the specifics of wartime risks, digital transformation, and socially oriented governance in a volatile environment. The obtained results provide both theoretical and practical value for the modernization of management systems in public utilities, the development of critical infrastructure recovery programs, and the formation of strategic plans in the field of municipal governance.