Rural territories' digitalization: from theory to practice

Large-scale application of digital technologies in management, social, and business processes determines the relevance of the inclusion of digital transformation factors in the socio-economic potential assessment of territorial systems. However, the applied methods of analyzing digitalization processes do not allow reflecting the influence of multi-level spatial set of digital transformation factors of life spheres on the process of potential formation and development of the country and its regions. The purpose of the research is to substantiate the need to include digitalization factors in the assessment of the aggregate potential of territorial socio-economic systems, to develop and test a methodology for integrative impact assessment of digital transformation factors on the state and socio-economic potential growth of territorial systems. The author uses the methods of analysis and synthesis, comparison and grouping, generalization and expert assessments, index and correlation methods of economic and statistical analysis. The working hypothesis of the undertaken research suggests a possibility of developing and applying a methodological approach to the analysis of the state and dynamics of digitalization processes reflecting the interdependence of characteristics of rural territories' potential and digital transformation parameters of rural life sphere. The paper defines the concepts of digitalization and digital potential, gives an annotated list of the main methodological approaches to assessing the territorial system's potential, proposes and tests the author's methodology version for analyzing and evaluating digitalization potential of rural territories, substantiates the model of a single digital platform for the purposes of state strategic planning for sustainable development of rural territories, structures the set of directions for digital transformation of region's life subjects, and forms a multi-level set of indicators for comparable assessment of the state and dynamics of digital transformation development which is useful for developing options for setting priorities when justifying strategic decisions in digitalization. The scientific novelty of the research is that for the first time there was an attempt to develop a methodological approach to assessing territorial system potential taking into account the factors of digital transformation of processes in the field of production, exchange, distribution, and consumption of public products.