End-to-end digitalization factors: Challenges for Russian manufacturers

Abstract

Despite clear progress in digitalization, Russia significantly lags behind global leaders in the use of digital technologies, including robots, artificial intelligence and 3D printing. In this study, we use the organizational characteristics of Russian industrial companies and the role of innovation diffusion channels to explain the digitalization factors of Russian industrial enterprises. The database is grounded on the results of a sample survey of 1.7 thousand companies; empirical estimates include the construction of logit regressions. The results of the study are mixed: digitized companies are focused on the domestic market, but are receptive to technology transfer from foreign investors, examples of other Russian and foreign companies in the industry, developments of research centers in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence. The study of the relationship between digitalization and firms’ use of innovation channels has shown the importance of market incentives and flexible public innovation policy instruments. Direct government involvement as an owner in stimulating digitalization affects innovative companies using robots and 3D printing, while indirect government support measures are significant for innovative companies using artificial intelligence. This suggests that Russian companies overcome the barriers of resource constraints and organizational rigidity in different ways, and are also selectively susceptible to external incentives, which should be taken into account by the government in its policies