The digital potential of regional markets as a new strategic factor in the development of franchise businesses

The article reflects the study results on digitalization of a modern economy and its influence on the processes of development and adjustment of strategies of economic entities as exemplified by franchise companies. The paper deals with the aspects of development of new forms of market cooperation in the digital environment, including entrance into regional markets in the new digital quality of goods and services presentation and sales. The study presents the analysis of the Russian market of Internet sales, including evaluation of a regional structure, parameters of the digital literacy according to expert judgements. The comparative characteristics of areas for development of franchise companies, including opening of own branches, mergers and acquisitions, franchising, establishment of strategic alliances or joint ventures, and websites, are determined. It is established that complication of the principles of interaction of market participants with the help of a digital environment leads to the fact that franchise companies need to adapt their business processes to new trends of information exchange in order to preserve their competitiveness indices. The strategy of presence in the digital market without activation of management processes results in a situation that the target audience give preference to competitors. The study results allow us to suggest an original system pre-digital monitoring of potential regional markets, aimed at finding additional locations with potential partners and customers. The paper provides a mechanism of expanding the boundaries of business activity for franchise companies within regions based on four scenarios: innovative, conservative, stabilization, and crisis. The creation of favorable conditions for the B2B and B2C segment in the regional markets should be responsible for the choice of franchise businesses when developing strategies based on the use of Internet technologies.