Specifics of Forming an Innovation Sector When Developing Industry 4.0 Technology

Abstract

The global economy is currently operating under the formation and development of the fourth industrial revolution, within which new technology such as the Internet of Things, intellectual spaces and new generation networks and systems are being generated. In similar transitional periods, the appearance of so much drastically new technology has traditionally been accompanied by radical changes not only to the industrial structure but to the national structure as well, in terms of global changes to the world economy. The emergence of these processes is already exhausting the global hyper-competition, above all, between the two current centers of the world economy with their alternative types of economic systems: the USA with its predominantly market economy and China with its predominantly planned economy. Mainstreaming the problems occurring during the formation and development of the fourth industrial revolution necessitates research of the fundamental bases of the phenomena mentioned above, in particular, the factors of the determining types of alternative economic systems. The goal of this research is to verify the impact the efficiency of the national economy’s real sector has on the type of economic system. The methodological basis for the authors’ research is the theory of alternative economic systems, which is based on D.Y. Miropolsky’s dual-sector model of economics. The theory of alternative economic systems was developed in the context of a neo-Marxist synthesis based on the methods of the dialectal approach. The main theoretical conclusion of the theory of alternative economic systems is the statement that the type of economic system is determined by the ratio between the basic and pioneering sector of the national economy, which, in turn, depends on the system of characterizing the division of labor. At the same time, this theoretical analysis validates the nature of how the ratio between the basic and pioneering sectors are influenced by such characteristics of the division of labor within a system that reflect the efficiency of the real sector of the national economy: specific resource efficiency, specific resource intensity and growth rate of productivity in the pioneering sector. When researching the specifics of forming an innovation sector during the development of Industry 4.0 technology based on a correlation-regression analysis of empirical data on the performance and development of the national economic sectors in Russia for 2005–2019, it was revealed that the biggest influencer on the ratio between the basic and pioneering sectors is the efficiency of the pioneering economic sector. The results of the regression compiled by the authors prove the existence of an inverse connection between the specific resource intensity of the pioneering sector and a direct link between the growth rate of productivity in the pioneering sector, on the one hand, and with the ratio between the basic and pioneering sectors on the other. In terms of the Russian economy, it was proven that there is a reduced level in the resource surplus of its basic sector and an increased level in the resource deficiency of the pioneering sector, creating objective preconditions for restricting the efficient operation of redistributive mechanisms based on market mechanisms, thus giving reason to strengthen planning economic mechanisms. Promising areas for further research of these issues include verifying the influence of the ratio between the basic and the pioneering sectors of the national economy on the type of economic system, determining the optimality criteria of this proportion and the conditions for its achievement, and identifying the level of influence government and market regulators have on this ratio. The results of such research will allow a set of scientifically based proposals to be developed on the formation of a system of government regulatory tools aimed at sustainably developing the national economy and increasing the level of its global competitiveness.