In the modern world, innovative technologies, the digitalization of society and all issues related to the development of business processes are becoming a kind of engine and necessary for the effective progressive development of our state. They are important components that ensure competitiveness and national security at the present stage and in the future. «The principles of the digital economy are transforming the general economic structure of countries and regions. The labor market is undergoing key transformations, as a result, the sphere of consumption is changing. Organizations, mastering the digital potential, extract competitive advantages, the level of prosperity of citizens increases.

Digitalization of the economy leads to a significant drop in indirect costs for production and financial interaction, strengthens the integrity of economic activity, increases the competitiveness of private and public partnerships, and along with «classical» resources, information becomes a rather significant and weighty resource. «In the conditions of the civilizational development of the modern world, it is digital technologies that are the engine, and Russia has every reason to be one of the leaders of embedding in the digital world. As can be observed in recent years, modern innovative technologies, the so-called «digit» is firmly included in the life of Russians and is a condition for the effective progressive development of our state, ensuring its global competitiveness and national security.

All the processes taking place in society, with the introduction of «numbers» and artificial intelligence based on neural networks, radically change both the forms of interaction between legal entities and individuals in the digital environment, and the ways of conducting economic activity. In this regard, the problems of the development of legislation and the improvement of the law enforcement system become relevant, because they touch upon issues not only of interpersonal relations, but also inter-subject relations at the state level and international cooperation.

The basic elements of any economic system are enterprises, firms, companies, various forms of ownership. The country’s leadership is adopting a package of various regulations that allow businesses to function and develop stably in the rather difficult conditions of modern geopolitics. One of the main factors for increasing business efficiency is the creation of a digital company. A digital company is a business entity that actively applies modern telecommunications and information technologies in all spheres of activity. A market economic entity, mastering technologies and introducing them into its own business processes, gradually turns into an enterprise with «digital thinking, and the product offered by the company becomes digital.

Control and public administration are undergoing serious changes related to the use of artificial intelligence in various fields, with specific changes in the ongoing geopolitical processes, which requires a review of a number of existing regulatory and legal provisions that form the basis of public administration. «The key indicator of Russia’s competitiveness is the state of leading industrial sectors, reliance on science, innovation, and changing approaches to healthcare. There are changes in the world order, a global transformation of the economy is taking place, all this requires quick decisions, flexible restructuring and the need to maintain security everywhere, including national and financial security, which allows creating a system of conditions for the smooth operation of the entire financial structure of the state. The stability of the financial system should remain unquestioning, because only in this case is a timely and effective response of state bodies to emerging threats with their further elimination possible [3].

One of the most important strategic tasks is the creation of a new modern format for the management of the national digital economy and an integrated approach to the modernization and optimization of all parts of economic activity based on digital infrastructure, affecting the introduction of new technologies, investment activities, as well as ensuring state security. The ongoing transformations in society completely change the content of the economy, which is becoming digital, and this changes approaches to investment activity – investments are not considered without innovation, which in turn leaves a certain imprint on the legal side of investment activity.

Regulatory and legal regulation of intersubject interaction based on ICT, ensuring the work of relevant government agencies and their private contractors (B2G) is a task of a completely different level of complexity compared to the regulation of B2B and B2C segments. The large-scale application and intensive development of modern technologies in socio-economic relations at the global level requires the formation of a completely new regulatory environment that allows ensuring the necessary legal regime, as we can see at Picture 1 [1].

Picture 1 — Technological trends as the fundament of the digital economy

Such extensive projects in the field of digitalization of the economy require investments, but they can already recoup all investments in the medium term by simplifying the interaction between all participants in public relations: ordinary citizens, small businesses, medium and large companies, government agencies and international investors. There are also other advantages of digitalization.

At the same time, it should be noted that the process of digitalization itself does not lead to an increase in the efficiency of economic processes, it should have a long-term development strategy and regulatory support from regulatory authorities.

The impact of the regulatory act on the social and economic situation cannot be instantaneous, it is in fact prolonged. In general, it is always preferable to conduct a full and detailed analysis of all costs and benefits for each of the possible regulatory alternatives. In practice, experts often try to find a balance between the importance of quantitative (monetary) representation of costs and benefits and the costs of conducting such an analysis.

To date, full-scale digitalization of the region’s industry and the economy of the region as a whole, without the formation of an appropriate digital environment, is impossible. This does not mean that digitalization will not be carried out in the region without appropriate organizational procedures, digitalization processes are almost non-stop in all spheres of the region’s economy. However, the pace of digitalization, and, consequently, the conditions for ensuring the competitiveness of the region’s economy, literally require the adoption of urgent organizational measures in the field of digitalization.

The existing advantages of digitalization have a number of certain risks that lead to job cuts, to a gap between countries with a developed digital economy and the lack of one, to the need for investments for the development of innovative digital technologies, since digital technologies are a qualitatively new level of development of society, it is quite difficult to predict the impact of which at the moment. Nevertheless, assessing the scale of the global economy, we can conclude that countries should strive to reduce the digital divide, strengthen interaction among themselves for a comprehensive study of the new trend and its effective implementation in the economic and social spheres of society [6].

Currently, there is an understanding that it is necessary to support not only individual projects in the field of digitalization of the economy, but also to carry out a whole range of measures to create a fundamentally new regulatory environment capable of meeting the needs of all participants in socio-economic interaction. Building such a legal regime would make it possible to effectively use all the resources available to the state, ensure fairness in decision-making and information security. Currently, it is obvious that the process of transition to the digital era is inevitable, and it is necessary to prepare for it both from the technological side and from the point of view of legal norms, avoiding legal conflicts and ensuring the stable development of the state.

The economic essence of the innovation activity of international companies is the introduction of innovations in entrepreneurial activity at the level of design, creation, development and production of new types of equipment, products, labor, intellectual property (patents, licenses, etc.) and more advanced forms of labor organization and production management.  Digital transformation forces international companies to increase their competitiveness by investing in product and service innovations. In the context of digitalization, the innovative activities of international companies are becoming a key factor in the growth and development of the enterprise.

The main methods and tools for the development of innovative activities of international companies are: methods of identifying opinions; analytical methods; evaluation methods; methods of generating ideas; decision-making methods; forecasting methods; methods of visual representation; argumentation methods; methods of organizing innovation activities; methods of forecasting possible innovations. The most effective methods that ensure a high level of competitiveness of international companies in the global market are innovation marketing, brand and rebranding, equipment leasing, franchising, concession, intra-entrepreneurship, market fronting, mergers, engineering and reengineering of innovations, benchmarking, technology transfer, etc. Digital technologies allow international companies to function, operate and develop in the ever-changing conditions of the global economy.

The strategic development of innovation activities of international companies provides for long-term goals, methods and scales of using innovations (product, process or organizational) to create strategic advantages, planning and development of the implementation of innovative strategies. The main strategies of innovative development of international companies are active strategies (leadership strategy and simulation strategies) and passive strategies (innovations and segmentation).

The analysis of the dynamics of the development of innovation activities of international companies in the United States and Western Europe in the context of the digital transformation of the world economy allows us to state the leadership of American international companies in terms of the level of innovation development. This is due to the great support for the spread of technology in the industrial sectors of the country.

Similarly, in the countries of Western Europe — there was a lot of support from the state for the development of innovative activities of companies, which consisted in the development of a strategic partnership between the government and industry, new tech support and increasing access to financial resources for business, which leads to formation of professional development programs and retraining of employees for digital business transformation, as seen at Picture 2.

Picture 2 – Methods of digital transformation for business.

Innovative processes significantly reshape modern society, forms of communicative interaction between people are in constant transformation. This makes it possible to build social contacts, management processes, forms of cooperation and self-organization in a completely new way. The digital culture of society significantly expands horizons, offering new approaches to human communication through multisensory, networked and unified communications.

In this regard, companies receive advantages in the form of modern digital technologies that allow creating a personalized environment through which an interactive exchange of information between consumers and the brand is carried out. Due to the optimization of the assortment for a specific customer, thanks to the use of digital data of the client, identifying his interests and drawing up individual offers and advertising companies.

This approach will increase the effectiveness of advertising and reduce its cost. In addition, thanks to using digital technologies, the company gets the maximum number of points of contact with its customers, which contributes to the final growth.

Assessment of the effectiveness of innovation management of international companies in Asia in the context of digital transformation of the world economy showed that over the past decade the region has rapidly developed and deepened its technological capabilities and infrastructure, which account for a significant share of global growth in technology companies’ revenues, startup financing, R&D expenditures and patent applications. The introduction of advanced manufacturing technologies in industry, innovation, research and development and entrepreneurial initiatives were supported and stimulated at all levels of management. Industrial restructuring and reorganization is being promoted, international cooperation is being stimulated, science, technology and innovation are being promoted, an innovative research and development program is being created, a strategic innovation program is being implemented, national research institutes are being strengthened, state and private sector investments in R&D are being increased, and intellectual property is being strengthened [2].

In the course of the study, the following problems were identified in the development of innovative activities of international companies in Western Europe and Asia in the context of digitalization of the world economy. Digitalization occurs unevenly both between the countries of Asia, Europe and the United States, and within them.

The digital economy using big data is characterized by serious inconsistencies and inequality in the balance of forces, which intensified even more during the pandemic, thereby highlighting the general trends of inequality and the state policy to support innovation activities is not implemented enough, within the framework of innovation support, they are limited to scientific research and high-tech startups and are not considered as a means of sustainable development in general.

There is a limited amount of dynamic communication and systematic interaction between the subjects of the broader national innovation system, including cooperation between science and industry, as well as finding some of the most important elements, such as risk capital markets, at the initial stages of development, insufficient funding and innovative potential.

In recent decades, the world has been rapidly moving towards a new type of economy, the main tool for the formation of which is digital technology.

At the present stage of development, it is digital technologies that are the main factor of technological change, the most important condition for the competitiveness of both individual enterprises and countries. They lead to the restructuring of all economic and production processes, a significant increase in productivity, quality improvement and reduction of the cost of goods and services.

Digital technologies, such as, for example, the Internet of Things, cloud services, artificial intelligence, are becoming increasingly widespread in the modern economic system. In domestic and foreign management science, they are characterized by such concepts as digital transformation, a change in the socio-economic paradigm and the 4th Industrial revolution. At the same time, it is obvious that the technological changes taking place today have a far-reaching impact on the activities of companies in all sectors of the economy, but they acquire a special role and importance in the field of innovation management, becoming objects of theoretical and practical understanding in both domestic and foreign management science.

Innovations are necessary for the development not only of an international company, but also of society as a whole, since they allow expanding the opportunities and satisfying human needs. For enterprises, innovations allow us to reach a new level of development, as they provide an opportunity to increase the customer base, reduce the cost of production, increase market share or enter a new sales market, which ultimately affects financial results and profitability [5].

Having studied and summarized a number of the considered definitions, the author of the WRC proposed to understand the introduction of innovations into entrepreneurial activity at the level of design, creation, development and production of new types of equipment, products, labor, intellectual property (patents, licenses, etc.) and more advanced forms of labor organization and production management.

There are various scientific approaches, methods and tools of innovation management that should be chosen for management and adapted to a specific branch of the economy, in addition, within the same industry, different economic entities can use completely different methods, since it is important to take into account the factors of the external and internal environment of a particular enterprise when organizing innovation policy [4].

At a certain stage of its activity, any company whose goal is an effective long-term existence in the market chooses one or another innovative strategy. Following the principle of an integrated approach to innovation, it can be assumed that the optimal solution is a combination of active and passive strategies in the implementation of innovation policy. This approach gives a unique competitive advantage to innovators, as it assumes not only scientific and technical superiority, but also the presence of strong innovative marketing positions.

A study of the innovative activities of international companies in the context of the digital transformation of the world economy has shown that the leading positions are occupied by high-tech companies Apple, Google, Microsoft, Tesla, Samsung, Amazon, etc. The digital transformation of business based on the use of the industrial Internet has made it possible to automate and integrate all business processes at enterprises. Such processes are usually divided into steps, shown at Picture 3.

Picture 3 – Stages of digital transformation

The leading countries are the home countries of the world’s largest corporations. Innovation has also become an important lever for the growth and success of international companies. Organizations around the world are stepping up their research and development (R&D) efforts to stay ahead of their competitors and develop products and services for the post-pandemic era.

The main strategies of innovative development of international companies are active strategies (leadership strategy and simulation strategies) and passive strategies (innovations and segmentation).

The high rates of innovation activity in the USA, Western, Europe and Asia are due to the high support from the state for the development of innovative activities of companies, mainly the development of a strategic partnership between the government and industry, supporting of new technologies, increasing access to financial resources of the business and the formation of professional development and retraining programs for employees for digital business transformation [7].

The assessment showed the high efficiency of innovation management of international companies in Asia in the context of digital transformation of the world economy. The introduction of advanced manufacturing technologies in industry, innovation, research and development and entrepreneurial initiatives were supported and stimulated at all levels of management. Industrial restructuring and reorganization is being promoted, international cooperation is being stimulated, science, technology and innovation are being promoted, an innovative research and development program is being created, a strategic innovation program is being implemented, national research institutes are being strengthened, state and private sector investments in R&D are being increased, and intellectual property is being strengthened.