=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2914/Paper45.pdf
|storemode=property
|title=Revisiting the Question of Digital Economy Development in the Russian Federation
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2914/paper45.pdf
|volume=Vol-2914
|authors=Alexander V. Rodionov,Diana A. Mardar
}}
==Revisiting the Question of Digital Economy Development in the Russian Federation==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2914/paper45.pdf
449
Revisiting the Question of Digital Economy Development
in the Russian Federation*
Alexander V. Rodionov 1[0000-0001-9034-5683] and Diana A. Mardar 2[0000-0002-3448-9268]
1 South Russian State Polytechnic University (NPI) named after M.I. Platov, Rostov region, 23
Karl Marx Street, Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, 347800, Russia,
av.box@bk.ru
2V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, Simferopol, Russia,
dianam08@inbox.ru
Abstract. The article deals with general issues of digital economy development
in the Russian Federation, its impact on economic processes that contribute to
economic advance increases the level of the welfare of the community. The paper
identifies the role and importance of the digital economy in the development of
entrepreneurship, considers the history of the emergence of the concept of "digi-
tal economy", notes the main features of the digital market. The work gives con-
sideration influence of the spread of the digital economy on the processes of glob-
alization and the development of international relations, business structure, cul-
ture, and consumer behavior. The positive aspects of informatization of society,
the inevitability of digitization of real assets, which are presented in binary terms,
are noted, which makes it possible to do without their transformation. It is also
noted that digitalization saturates the physical world with digital electronic de-
vices, tools, and systems, therefore, creates the exchange of electronic communi-
cations between them. It was revealed that the purpose of digitalization of the
Russian Federation is the digital transformation of already existing jobs and the
creation of new jobs in sectors of the economy to transform all spheres of life
into new, more efficient, and modern ones. The main guidelines of the develop-
ment of modern information technologies are determined - artificial intelligence,
blockchain, quantum computing, virtual reality, etc.
Keywords: Digital Economy, Information, And Communication Technologies,
E-Commerce, Digitizing, Assets, Digitalization, Financial Instruments, Globali-
zation, Digital Innovations.
1 Introduction
The rapid pace of scientific and technological progress, which is observed in all spheres
of economic activity, causes the emergence of new forms and methods of entrepreneur-
ship and the expansion of ways to meet consumer needs.
* Copyright 2021 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
450
In the XXI century. institutions, institutional infrastructure (AI) of the digital econ-
omy (DE) acquire vital importance in the context of digitalization, reindustrialization,
globalization and hybrid wars, ensuring the viability, security and competitiveness of
the economy of almost any country [11]. The national program “Digital Economy of
the Russian Federation” is a state platform that allows creating a fundamentally new
scheme of relations between business, the state and the scientific community to increase
the country's competitiveness on a global level [15].
The explosive development of information technology in the late twentieth and early
twenty-first centuries led to the beginning of cultural and economic globalization. Busi-
ness entities that were the first to use the advantages of the global digital network re-
ceived some competitive advantages. The creation of the digital world opened addi-
tional opportunities for the development of international business in general and in var-
ious branches of the economy in particular.
2 Formulation of the Purpose and Statement of the Objectives of
the Work
At the beginning of the 21st century, many entrepreneurs more than ever felt the impact
of the global digital revolution, which was gradually changing the way of life world-
wide. The informatization of society, of course, should be considered as active social
advancement as a whole.
Digitization of real assets is an element of work in the information technology sys-
tem. Therefore, each digitized asset has a binary expression or accounting:
- realizes itself as a real (having a physical form) asset, the use of which allows
drawing real income in the market when conducting relevant transactions;
- is an electronic record that makes it possible to conduct transactions and gain in-
come.
The information system described above has been available since the creation of the
first computers. Even then, it was possible to digitize assets, i.e. provide information
about objects in digital form. However, the use of the described method of reproducing
economic information in business was hampered by the lack of computer networks.
Today, digitization of assets contributes to the development of the economy and makes
it possible to conduct business without transforming real assets, using the processes of
distribution and transformation, as well as the transfer of information [1].
Through the use of modern information technologies, there is a steady development
in international business, which affects the growth of GDP in countries, this indicates
an increase in the efficiency of economic entities, therefore, conditions are created for
getting more from the globalization of the international economy, overcoming barriers
to the development of economic relations between various countries and meeting con-
sumer needs.
The founder of "the postindustrial society" theory Daniel Bell was the first to pay
attention to the phenomena associated with information. Analyzing these phenomena
in the book "The Coming of Post-Industrial Society" [4], he concluded the importance
of information as an economic category. Another outstanding thinker, Alvin Toffler
451
[3], supported the theory of the economy of the future and called it a “knowledge econ-
omy”, but in the course of further research, he defined it as “information economy” [2].
Manuel Castells tried to define the concept of "information age" in his works [3].
Many scientific works of both domestic and foreign scientists are devoted to the
problems of the formation of the information society and the digital economy as a stage
in the development of modern civilization, the functioning of which is based on the use
of information and communication technologies and human creativity. That is why it is
important to study the current state of e-business development [4].
Digitalization saturates the physical world with digital electronic devices, tools, and
systems, therefore, creates the exchange of electronic communications between them.
The digital economy opens up new opportunities that can change the life of humanity
for the better. Through the use of the advancement of electronic technology, consumers
can quickly obtain more services and goods of higher quality. For each business, the
switch to e-commerce can serve as a growth and development potential increasing the
number of customers and facilitating the sale and delivery of services through IT, as
well as using network services and cloud platforms. According to sociological research,
in 2016, the number of people with easy Internet access exceeded 3 billion. In 2019,
more than 53% of the world's population, or 4.1 billion people, had access to the Inter-
net. It makes almost half of the world's population. An entrepreneur who has failed to
establish interaction with his consumers on the Internet shall not withstand the compe-
tition and will be put out of business [1].
The purpose of digitalization of the Russian Federation is the digital transformation
of existing jobs and the creation of new jobs in sectors of the economy to transform all
spheres of life into new, more efficient, and modern ones. The creation of modern dig-
ital space and the corresponding infrastructure is beneficial for everyone: citizens, com-
panies, and foreign investors. Another important task is to create motivation for digital
technologies in society, that is to provide consumers with financial access to digital
technologies, create conditions in various spheres of life for the formation of needs of
citizens and businesses to use digital methods instead of using conventional, traditional
ones.
The past few decades have seen the development of digital innovation and cyber-
physical systems ("cyber-physical systems" - CPS). These changes and transformations
were formed during the Fourth Industrial Revolution [5]. CPS is increasingly being
used to serve human needs and their technological and social base has been formed. As
of April 2020, 4.57 billion people were active Internet users; 4.2 billion - mobile Inter-
net users; 3.81 billion were active users of social networks, including 3.76 billion - on
mobile devices [6].
Preliminary forecasts show that Russia has a good chance of reducing "electronic
barriers" if the state begins to build a regulatory policy following global practice and
does not create artificial obstacles to the development of digital business.
The market in the digital economy has its peculiarities:
the lack of reliable technical protection (incorrectness and user errors break pro-
grams, antiviruses, etc.);
the problem of illegal distribution of programs;
452
the absence of customs barriers contributes to the unimpeded entry of software
developers into the markets of other countries;
it is not a software product that is sold, but a license to use it (the product itself is
referred to the category of so-called shareware);
individual peculiarities of the client and his requests are taken into consideration;
the absence of binding not to the object of production, but binding to the client;
difficulties with typing the product due to different software and computer con-
figuration among users.
Informatization of all sectors of the economy is only a matter of time. Even today
we can see how quickly intelligent automation systems are being introduced into all
spheres of the economy. It seems that the entire economy will sooner or later find itself
at the center of the digital spiral. However, this process is not as easy as it sounds. The
industry that is at the center of the transformation does not disappear; it feeds and
strengthens other industries. There is some kind of division of the economy, when a
part of the business, which is controlled automatically, easily leaves the field of view,
and other activities appear in its place.
First of all, these are those sectors of the economy that benefit from digital transfor-
mation - those that are associated with the provision of services that, potentially, cannot
be automated, where thinking, creativity, and human participation are necessary.
The program of the digital economy of the Russian Federation involves the devel-
opment of various modern information technologies - artificial intelligence, blockchain,
quantum computing, virtual reality, etc. But this is exactly what the state should do least
of all, business and science should do it. And the state should regulate the economy in
such a way that, the result of its digital separation could make it possible to avoid im-
balances in the labor market, in the social sphere, etc. And, oddly enough, the help that
is needed here is not digital at all, but a rather analog one. Small and medium businesses
should be supported in the development of new (non-digital) services, which will make
the economy more adaptable. It is necessary to impose restrictions from below on the
cost of labor, so that slave labor was no longer profitable. Helping to the digital trans-
formation of the economy lies in the non-digital area [4].
It is very important to understand that a distinctive feature of IE is the immaterial
nature of the products and assets it creates. The fact is that with the development of IE,
both the volume and the significance of various types of information will grow - both
formalized intellectual products (knowledge) and structured databases created system-
atically, including those created without human involvement. And since with an in-
crease in the volume and quality of information, its importance will grow, its value will
also increase. And the day is not far away when the total cost of capitalized information
that humanity possesses will surpass the value of its material assets. Moreover, it is not
unlikely that it has already happened, since today the list of the most valuable corpora-
tions in the world consists mainly of companies, where the lion's share of the wealth is
made up of intangible assets, which are nothing more than structured and capitalized
information. It follows from the above that, information, being a catalyst of economic
relations, unlike numbers, is capable of creating not only products/services but also
assets in huge amounts.
453
Therefore, it is information, as an economic category, that should become the basis
for determining the name of the coming economic era. The impact will have on the
world economy, and how it will happen, will be discussed further [7].
Fig. 1 presents the process of the selection of financial instruments, their use, and
transformation in the context of the digital economy. The distinctive feature is the pos-
sibility to expand the choice of financial instruments, hence improving the conditions
for interaction with counterparties and expand the enterprise capabilities.
Fig. 1. Scheme for the selection of financial instruments in the digital economy.
454
In the process of the digital economy development, all stages of life, functioning of an
enterprise, in one way or another, interact with digital technologies. In the modern
world, at all stages of strategy development and decision-making, it is advisable to in-
volve relatively new sources of digital information.
So, when collecting information, it is possible to use Big Date information pro-
cessing technology along with standard methods of obtaining data.
Grants are gaining popularity among financial instruments because they can be ob-
tained using Internet technology without a physical presence. Kickstarter, which makes
it possible to attract resources to start-up entrepreneurs, should not go unnoticed. At the
stage of data analysis, large companies use appropriate programs: Dynamics 365 Fi-
nance, Microsoft Power BI, and others.
Thus, the area of the digital economy provides exceptional opportunities for new
fields of business and social development in general, requiring new approaches to im-
plementation and management of this area. Besides some familiar categories, and
trends in economic sciences need further scientific study and transformation.
Economic culture is one of the promising areas of digital transformation. The con-
cept of "culture" today is interpreted as a resource for changing the quality of life by
improving its conditions, as a creative element for the development of the economic
sphere. The influence of culture on the economy has a significant impact on the quality
of human capital and is becoming a driver of economic growth. This is the result of
economic knowledge evolution [8].
The components of economic culture are also changing: new models of the for-
mation and determination of human economic behavior are emerging; the way of life
is changing following new needs. Today, the study of economic culture phenomenon
resolves itself to the study of changes taking place in the world in general, in particular,
due to the development of digital technologies. Thus, digital culture has become an
integral part of modern economic culture.
If at the macro level we are talking about the "digital" modernization of society and
the "digitalization" of the main aspects [9], then at the micro-level we should talk about
the formation of a digital element of the economic culture of institutions as a new driver
of "reset" and development.
The lack of a unified concept of the digital economy for statistical purposes, as well
as a methodology for measuring the contribution of the digital economy to the gross
domestic product, complicates the digital transformation processes, since there are no
necessary control and monitoring tools [12].
Information production is the most dynamically developing sphere of the Russian
economic activity. At the same time, the growth rate of the market of the digital ser-
vices’ producers exceeds the growth rates of the markets of consumers and digital ser-
vices intermediaries in the Russian regions [13]. The digital economy as a set of eco-
nomic relations, which are mediated by information and computer technologies used
by all participants in the socio-economic system [14].
455
3 Findings from the Study and Prospects for Further
Development of this Sphere
As practice shows, the digital economy in Russia is developing quite steadily, depend-
ing on the economic situation of the state. However, there are a large number of barriers
that can hinder positive changes in the formation of the digital economy in the domestic
market. The main guidelines for stimulating the development of the digital economy
can be considered the unification of legal provisions, as well as providing legal protec-
tion for e-commerce entities to eliminate obstacles to the development of the electronic
space.
Accelerated transition to the digital economy in the Russian Federation as a neces-
sary element of the stability of the Russian statehood and maintaining its competitive-
ness in the global economic and political space [10].
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