The purpose of this article is to present the findings of a study examining the main approaches to understanding the essence and significance of intellectual capital as a factor in enhancing competitiveness. To achieve this goal, several interconnected tasks were addressed during the study. These tasks included analyzing various perspectives from both foreign and domestic scholars regarding the nature of intellectual capital and systematizing the results of that analysis; identifying the key components of the structure of intellectual capital to determine its influencing factors; and outlining the role of intellectual capital in shaping an enterprise’s competitiveness. The starting point for this research was the recognition that, in today's economy, the ability of a company to establish and maintain a competitive position in the market relies less on material and financial capital (which are still necessary conditions for production) and more on the company's intellectual capital. A high level of quality in an enterprise's intellectual capital and efficient utilization of this capital primarily depend on its structure - specifically, the resources that affect the formation of its elements. The study revealed that most scholars agree on three main components of intellectual capital: human capital, customer capital, and structural capital. The latter encompasses organizational, innovative, and process capital. Intellectual capital is the form in which the characteristics and essence of human capital are most prominently expressed. Its effectiveness largely relies on the optimal configuration of its structural components, which in turn influences an enterprise’s competitiveness in the market. Organizations can remain competitive only if they can continually create, update, and effectively utilize their intellectual capital to address operational, economic, and technical challenges. In the near future, a promising direction for further research into the formation and impact of intellectual capital on competitiveness is the development of a methodology for quantifying the relationship between the quality and volume of intellectual capital and a company's competitiveness. This research aims to enhance the effective realization of the potential inherent in intellectual capital.