Abstract
Small businesses operate in an environment of increased competition, limited resources, and high market uncertainty. In such circumstances, the need for structured and analytically sound marketing management tools becomes critically important. The purpose of this study is to determine which modern approaches to marketing audit are most effective for small businesses operating in unstable market conditions, taking into account the economic and institutional context of Kazakhstan. The central idea of the study is that the integration of formal decision-making criteria in the context of uncertainty into the structure of marketing audit increases its strategic and predictive potential. The scientific significance of this work lies in eliminating methodological gaps in the literature, where marketing audit is often considered primarily as a diagnostic or control tool. The study suggests an expanded interpretation of marketing audit as an integrated decision support system combining performance diagnostics with quantitative assessment models. Methodologically, the study uses conceptual synthesis and analytical modeling, which include Laplace, Maximax, Wald and Savage criteria (minimax regret) in the marketing audit process and illustrate their application using the example of structured decision-making scenarios. The results confirm that the combination of quantitative decision-making criteria with marketing performance indicators creates a more adaptive and risk-sensitive structure than traditional audit approaches applied independently of each other. The proposed model increases the accuracy of forecasting, promotes the rational allocation of resources and improves the strategic positioning of small enterprises. The contribution of this research is to develop an adaptive marketing audit model adapted for small businesses operating in economies undergoing institutional and market transformation. From a practical point of view, the results obtained provide entrepreneurs with a structured algorithm for conducting an independent audit, which improves the quality of management decisions and long-term sustainability. Keywords: small enterprise, marketing audit, small and medium-sized businesses, growth forecast, decision-making in conditions of uncertainty.