Regional Digital Space and Digitalisation of Industry: Spatial Econometric Analysis

The heterogeneous development of digital space in the regions is accounted for by many factors, which predetermine the spatial features of digital infrastructure development and its use. In turn, the formation and expansion of the digital space have an impact on the productive capacity of the regions. Accordingly, the hypothesis of the research is an assumption that there exists a bilateral relationship between the digital space formed in the regions and the level of digital transformation of a region. To test this hypothesis, the objective was to assess the specifics of digital space formation in the regions and, using the methods of regression analysis, to assess the factors of its development and the cause-effect relationship with the industrial digitalisation indices in regional territories. The paper presents a methodological approach that takes into account the spatial heterogeneity of digital space formation and development, which helps to identify the factors of its development in different regional groups and to ascertain the impact of territorial digital space on the industry digitalisation level. The use of the given methodology resulted in the identification of three groups of regions in terms of the digital space development level, with ascertainment of the key factors of its development. It was proved that the high level of digital space development in the first group of regions was due to the active use of advanced production technologies in the industry. The study of cause-effect relationships using the Granger test made it possible to reveal the inverse impact of the digital space on the industry digitalisation indices, thus confirming the proposed hypothesis.