The competitiveness of single-industry cities in the digital transformation of the economy

Abstract

At the present stage, successful cities are experiencing a digital transformation. Information and communication technologies (ICT) contribute to the enhanced competitiveness, improving the quality of life, establishing the interaction between citizens, business and government. These issues are considered through the concept of “Smart City”. The demand for intelligent technologies “Smart City” is gradually taking shape in Russia. In this part, Russia is significantly inferior to leading economies, and the projects being implemented are mainly related to point digitalization. Single-industry cities are in great demand for “smart” solutions. Problems of single-industry cities are considered as one of the main priorities of national policy. For decades, single-industry cities have been the basis of Russian economy and, at the same time, the most vulnerable elements of the socio-economic space. In economy digitalization, single-industry cities do not need measures to overcome the temporary decline in production. They strongly need a new development model. The main goal of this model should be to enhance the efficiency of the economic mechanism based on the introduction of digital technologies and platform solutions into the economy and management of the city. Taking into account the features of socio-economic development and the existing needs, the company has the opportunity to choose the appropriate model. We believe that the model of a single-industry city should be based on a comprehensive assessment of its competitiveness. The purpose of the contribution is to determine the specific nature of assessing the competitiveness of single-industry cities under digital transformation of the economy and to develop guidelines based on the results of theoretical and empirical data. The authors of the contribution attempted to select the optimal scenario for digital transformation of the single-industry city depending on the model of its development.