The starting point of research on assessing the innovative capacity of an enterprise is the question of definitions. In this regard, authors initially turned to review of scientific literature on the subject of definitions variety for the term "enterprise innovative capacity". These data show that the wording of this term by both foreign and Russian researchers differs significantly. Authors propose a systematization of approaches to the definition and a corresponding graphical classification model, which highlights the evolutionary, resource, functional and process approaches. Further, a critical analysis of approaches to assessing enterprise innovative capacity is carried out. At the first stage, the content of modern assessment methods was studied, and at the second stage, the mathematical tools used were studied. Authors have formed a graphical representation of critical analysis results and based on it, they have concluded that among the approaches to assessing enterprise innovative capacity, the evolutionary approach should be recognized as promising, and among the methods of quantitative assessment – tools of economic statistics.