Repositioning of the regional economy in value chains based on the search for promising specializations: the case of the timber industry complex of the Vologda oblast

The slowdown of the Russian economy as a result of increased sanctions pressure was less signifi cant than predicted in 2022. The rapid adaptation of Russian business and government support of the economy made it possible to compensate for the negative effects of sanctions. However, the adaptation period is coming to an end, and Russia's economy must move to a structural transformation relying on internal sources of growth. Sectoral priorities of structural policy in the regions should be promising economic activities that integrate into existing value chains, deepening the processing of products and eliminating “bottlenecks”. In this regard, the purpose of the study is to develop and justify the directions of repositioning the regional economy in value creation chains, relying on promising economic activities. To achieve it, it requires solving such tasks as building the existing value creation chain, identifying its most vulnerable links, and the formation of measures to support and develop promising economic activities that are organically integrated into the value creation chain. The information base of the study was the works of Russian and foreign authors in the fi eld of structural policy, value creation chains, the search for perspective specializations and intersectoral modeling, data from Rosstat, “Spark-Interfax”, the state information resource of accounting statements. The scientifi c novelty of the work is the application of our approach to the identifi cation of promising specializations in the transformation of value creation chains in the regional economy. The results of the study can be used by public authorities in the development of strategic documents on economic policy, including structural, industry strategies, investment passports and standards. The results will also be useful to a wide range of researchers working on issues of structural policy, analysis, design and modeling of value creation chains, the problems of the regional economy as a whole.