TRANSFORMATION OF THE REGIONAL ECONOMY INTO AN ECOSYSTEM IN THE PARADIGM OF DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT
One of the most severe challenges of globalization is digitalization, which is rapidly penetrating into all spheres of our lives and changing the world. The global economy is undergoing a digital transformation and is turning into a digital economy. Competition in the digital economy is increasingly becoming a competition between entrepreneurial ecosystems and business ecosystems. The purpose of this article is a theoretical justification for the transformation of the regional economic system into an ecosystem, as well as the emergence of an electronic digital control subsystem within it. The article deals with the regional ecosystem phenomenon as a new digital development paradigm. It is shown that any ecosystem includes interconnected elements that constantly interact and mutually reinforce each other. It has been established that initially, ecosystems in the economy appear as business ecosystems, which, being in the same region, develop into an ecosystem of the regional economy, within which all economic agents not only interact but are also interdependent and mutually influence each other. It has been argued that digital transformation affects all areas of regional development, including the sphere of economic management in the region. The prerequisites for forming an ecosystem of the regional economy (ESER) and its electronic digital control subsystem are substantiated. The signs of the formation of the regional economy as an ecosystem, realized through the manifestation in the conditions of digital transformations of the principles of ecosystems according to F. Capra, are identified and substantiated. The role of the electronic digital subsystem developing in the context of digitalization in the process of transforming the regional economic system into an ecosystem is proved. The study used methods of comparative and situational analysis, as well as an interdisciplinary economic and environmental approach to the analysis of business ecosystems and regional ecosystems as a phenomenon of a new paradigm of digital development. The factor analysis of the economic, social, and information processes of the regions of the Central Federal District carried out by the authors showed an increase in the correlation between the main factors of the electronic digital subsystem and the economy of the region, which confirms the formation of the electronic digital subsystem within the regional economic system and the strengthening of the relationship between them, which contributes to the transformation of the regional economy into an ecosystem.