Risks and Socio-Economic Consequences of the Development of Convergent Technologies: Identification and Assessment

The transformation of socio-economic reality in the Russian Federation at the present stage is described by the properties of the dynamism of changes and their uncertainty. The development of convergent technologies poses many new challenges for economic entities that require their resolution and additional risks and threats associated with the realities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The exponential growth of the emergence and implementation of innovative technologies determines the complexity of forecasts for the country’s socioeconomic development in the near and long term. The action of the synergistic effects of their influence can be accompanied by the emergence of new opportunities and contradictions in the development of not only national economies separately but also at the mega-, meso-, and microeconomic levels, so the study of these aspects is especially significant at this stage of their economic development. This article is based on the use of the laws of dialectical development (the law of unity of the historical and logical, the law of transition of quantitative changes to qualitative ones, etc.), systemic and institutional approaches, as well as factor analysis as applied to economic development. The paper examines the determinants, prerequisites, and conditions of Industry 4.0, as well as the risks generated by it. In this regard, a set of potential risks and scenarios for the development of the domestic national economic system within the framework of the implementation of convergent technologies has been identified. Based on the analysis, a system of indicators has been proposed to assess the availability and applicability of factors in economic systems developing in these conditions. In the course of the comparative analysis, common risks generated by convergent technologies have been identified, and areas for regulating socio-economic processes in countries have been determined that would ensure their sustainable and competitive development in the conditions under consideration.