FORMING THE CONCEPT OF THE THEORY OF INFORMATION ECONOMY: METHODOLOGICAL AND PRACTICAL ASPECTS
The paper studies the conceptual provisions of the information economy theory. The authors have identified three approaches: the broad, the expansive and the narrow ones, which, depending on the scale of the research object present different views on the information economy. The research lays emphasis on the broad approach, with the formulation of information economy theory practical development stages. The paper thoroughly investigates the modern fifth stage, which is the stage of theoretical and methodological aspects’ formation within the information economy from the standpoint of interdisciplinary synthesis. As part of this phase the authors identify the stages of the information economy theory’s practical implementation. The paper also offers certain indicators to measure the country's transition level to the appropriate stage of the information economy. Information economy formation indicators show that today’s Russia is at the third stage of the transition process, despite the fact that there are some elements of the fourth and fifth stages of the information economy present. They include information technologies’ use expansion, growth in the number of people employed in the information sphere, as well as business support programmes’ orientation on the science-intensive industries’ development. Nevertheless, there are certain problems that slow informatization processes in the Russian economy. The article claims that Russian information economy formation and development requires solving the problems identified. Special attention should be paid to the need of improving the institutions that govern economic relations in the information sphere, as well as in infrastructure provision of business processes that determine transformation processes in all business infrastructure subsystems.