The Organizational and Methodological Aspects of Remotely Researching the Issues Arising from the Digital Transformation of Regions with Different Levels of Social and Cultural Modernization. Part I

This is the first part of an article that will discuss digital transformation issues in Russian regions that differ by social and cultural modernization level, as well as the population’s willingness to accept digital transformation in life and at work. Today’s main digital transformation tools and regulators are regional governance systems, along with the relevant official bodies that are responsible for the design and implementation of strategic solutions for territorial development. In response to the associated issues, we interviewed experts in 17 Russian regions that differ by the aforementioned modernization level. We used the data collected during the interviews to: determine how prepared the regional organizations and enterprises are for digital transformation; evaluate the resources currently available for “breakthrough projects”; discover the public attitude towards the introduction of the Russian Federation Digital Economy national project. The article focuses on the research rationales and cognitive procedures that have been developed for the purposes of management sociology, and applies them to studying the issues that arise out of digital transformation and the introduction of “smart” governance on the regional level, based on the optimization of digital transformation through the involvement of the so-called stakeholders — specially assembled activist teams that contribute to the controlled implementation of digital technology in the region in a variety of ways, from research to applied solutions.