Regional drivers of digital ecosystems’ development of industrial enterprises

The key characteristics and technologies of the new industrial revolution create conditions for the emergence of new business models that implement not individual, but ecosystem-based development of industrial enterprises based on common digital platforms. Digital ecosystems of industrial enterprises are considered in the study as interdependent groups of economic actors that share digital platforms to achieve mutuallybeneficial goals. These business models characterize a new evolutionary stage in the development of industrial enterprises and reflect the transition from a linear to a multidimensional and distributed value chain involving partners, suppliers, consumers, and other participants. The paper highlights the effects generated as a result of the appearance of ecosystems in the industrial sphere for ecosystem centers (platform owners), participants, consumers of digital industrial ecosystems, as well as the regional economy. Based on the empirical analysis of the activities of industrial enterprises in the regions of the South of Russia, the “traces” of the digital ecosystem were found in several southern industrial enterprises. The study showed that among the enterprises under analysis, only two have a business model built following the principles of the ecosystem approach, and most industrial structures in the South of Russia tried combining technology and business processes into a joint information loop. It is proved that at present moment the company’s information circuit should cover not only employees of departments, equipment, and data but also customers, suppliers, and partners, combining them into a joint network, due to which the business becomes more adaptive. Taking this fact into consideration, a set of drivers and conditions for the ecosystem digital transformation of industrial enterprises is identified. Special attention is paid to regional drivers that allow developing a favorable environment for the emergence of digital ecosystems. It is shown that the core role in the number of activators of the formation of ecosystems in the industrial sphere is played by economic motivation.