Support tools for business digitalization tasks

Abstract

Introduction. Digitalization is a mainstream trend in business transformation. Its purpose is to solve the problems of enterprise and industry development, such as lower costs of doing business, expanded customer database, efficient management of sales channels, lower costs of contact with the target audience, sales forecasting and monitoring. Purpose. The research is aimed at finding the areas for improving the tools of public support in the entrepreneurial sector in the era of digitalization. Materials and Methods. General scientific methods (analysis, comparison) and specialized (analytical, statistical) methods of research were used in the analysis. Results. The analysis showed specific features of digitalization impact on the entrepreneurial sector, identified the problems which demand special tools of public support for the entrepreneurial sector at the time of voluntary and forced digitalization at the regional level, as well as outlined the areas to solve the problems in question. The analysis revealed the reasons hindering the transition of enterprises to digital transformation (for example, lack of knowledge, skills, and competencies to handle digital technologies, lack of financial resources for their introduction). The paper describes methods and tools of public support for entrepreneurial digitalization at the regional level. The study shows that the current tools are not always efficient, which is confirmed by the representatives of expert community. Conclusions. Some novel parts of the study identifies the prevalence of digital technologies, the achieved results and expected effects from the implementation of regional cases aimed at solving problems associated with digitalization. In practice, the results of the study could be used by the representatives of government and management bodies, who could be involved into finding the solutions for providing the public support to a business sector. Keywords: business, digitalization, digital transformation, support tools, public support, region Funding: the research is a part of a state task No. FMGZ-2022-0002 “Methods and mechanisms of socio-economic development of the Russian regions in the context of digitalization and the fourth industrial revolution”.