Tools for Assessing the Potential of Industrial Complexes and Territories in the Context of Digital Transformations
Authors: Men’shchikova V. I. , Vertakova Y. V. , Drozdov V. I. 
Published: January 2021

conditions for the introduction of digital technologies and its own level of potential. This makes the issues of assessing the digital potential of economic systems at various levels increasingly important. The presented study expands and assesses the concept of the potential of industrial complexes in the context of digital transformations.

Aim. The study aims to assess the digital potential of industrial complexes based on the analysis of regional conditions for the use of information technologies and information and telecommunications networks.

Tasks. The authors substantiate the urgency of the problem and the experience of solving it; explore the essence of the potential of industrial complexes in the context of digital transformations, summarize approaches to its assessment, characterize the digital potential of the industry; assess the digital potential of the regions of the Russian Federation as specific territories where industrial complexes are located; propose ways of increasing the digital potential of territories.

Methods. This study uses general scientific methods of cognition and methods of comparative analysis to develop the general research logic and explore the essence of the examined phenomena and processes. It also uses such methodological tools as analytical introspection (determining the estimated phenomena of the examined object through the analysis of practical materials) and theoretical cognition (grouping and summarizing scientific research in the field of digital transformations in the economy). Methods of applied statistics and cluster analysis are used to examine various aspects of the use of information technologies and information and telecommunications networks in regional Russian organizations. Applied software Excel and IBM SPSS Statistics are used to perform calculations, process and evaluate the information used in the study.

Results. The authors conclude that it is necessary to separate digital potential from the structure of potential of industrial enterprises and complexes. Digital potential is described as an opportunity for enterprises to build a more effective management system through digital technologies and/or their implementation in production processes. By using the total placings method and data clustering based on intergroup relations, the authors are able to rank regions of the Russian Federation and group them into six clusters by the degree to which information technologies and information and telecommunications networks are used in organizations. Major directions for increasing the digital potential of Russian regions as specific territories where industrial complexes are located are proposed.

Conclusions. The conducted study explores the essence of the potential of industrial complexes in the context of digital transformations, summarizes approaches to its assessment, and determines the essence of the digital potential of the industry; assesses the digital potential of Russian regions as specific territories where industrial complexes are located; proposes ways of increasing the digital potential of territories.