Digital capital of Russian enterprises: development trends in the digitalisation of the economy and the coronavirus pandemic

Abstract

The digitalisation of the economy and the global coronavirus pandemic transfer competition for consumers into a virtual Internet environment, in which the enterprise success depends on its digital capital, which includes an Internet communication system with potential consumers. The article reveals the regularities and trends in the development of the enterprises digital capital focused on the retail market for the period 2017–2021. Economic and variance analysis of digital capital indicators based on the enterprises formed samples has been carried out. It has been noted that the leaders in the demand for websites are the trade and services industries. The global coronavirus pandemic in 2020–2021 became a powerful growth driver, with the major effect on enterprise website promotion is observed with a one year lag (in 2021). It has been found that the most industries enterprises are practically not engaged in the paid traffic development for their sites. Only real estate agencies actively interact with advertising Internet services. It has been shown that the enterprises digital capital development constantly requires new impulses or growth drivers and enterprises in most studied industries do not use the full opportunities range for increasing digital capital.