An approach to assessing the level of business digitalization in Russian regions

Introduction: the methodological approaches currently used to assess the level of domestic business digitalization do not allow obtaining fully accurate results, since they do not consider trends in digital business development, as well as a few other parameters related to the regional specifics of digitalization, for example, the industry structure of enterprises. Objectives: to provide a theoretical and methodological justification for the conceptual foundations for assessing the level of business digitalization in Russian regions. Methods: analytical method, comparative analysis, focus group research method. Results: the article examines methodological approaches to assessing the level of Russian business digitalization, revealing their advantages and disadvantages. The research takes into account the opinion of experts – leading scientists from academic and educational institutions of the Russian Federation and the Vologda region, specializing in the development of business sector digitalization; with this in view, a conceptual approach to assessing the level of business digitalization has been proposed and substantiated, focusing on the “nature” of digital processes in the business environment, the specificity of the digital technologies being implemented and a number of other components. Conclusions: further testing of this approach using the case of the Vologda region as a Russian region revealing typical values of most socio-economic indicators will allow to obtain data on the business digitalization level under conditions of both “voluntary” and specifically “forced” digitalization, and will also make it possible to take into account the regional features of digital processes, the industry structure of enterprises, the types of digital technologies implemented at the enterprise, as well as the qualitative results of the digital technologies impact of on the activities of companies. It is important to emphasize that the proposed approach in assessing the level of business digitalization can be disseminated to other Russian regions.