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Purpose: This chapter provides a meso-level scientific and economic study aimed at capturing the nature and extent of technological inequalities manifesting themselves in the regional economy. Regions shall mean economic systems within countries. The authors hypothesize that the regional economy of modern Russia is characterized by pronounced yet moderate technological inequalities at the level of the regional economy.

Design/methodology/approach: A factor analysis of the influence of different factors of state regulation of the regions on technological inequality in Russia is conducted. This makes it possible to develop and substantiate an economic and legal approach to managing conflicts in the sphere of digital development. A bifurcation analysis of wealth and resource dynamics is given.

Findings: In this chapter, the authors examine the basis for state regulation of technological inequalities in Russia’s regions.

Originality/value: The main focus of this chapter is the result of a regression-based factor analysis on the direction of state regulation of the regions on technological inequality in Russia.

In this work, we study the investment processes in the digital economy, which includes determining the specifics of foreign direct investments (FDIs) under the conditions of digital technologies' development and substantiating the key directions and tendencies of investing from the positions of strategies of business integration and digital technologies' development.

This research is based on the multidisciplinary approach, which covers strategic management, investing, the theory of digital economy etc. The chapter combines the theoretical developments of these disciplines and presents them in the context of substantiation of the processes of using foreign direct investments as the tools of the business integration strategy. The proposed methodology allows generalising the view of the studied processes from the position of the digital economy, determining its structure; describing the key directions of development and investing; establishing the specifics of the use of FDI by transnational corporations; substantiating important directions for further processes.

It is revealed that foreign direct investments are not only the important factors in economic systems' development but also the effective tools for the integration of international business through the common use of the potential of parent and subsidiary companies for the reduction of transaction costs, an increase of profit etc. It is substantiated that the character of direct investing in the digital economy is different from the similar processes in the industrial system due to the non-material character of assets and their connection to the Internet. Based on this, implementing the investment strategy in the digital economy, transnational corporations offer access to technologies, ensure technological modernisation and facilitate the achievement of other indirect effects, which are less aimed at the increase in material assets. These processes lead to a change in the balance of revenues compared to the cost of material assets that are invested in the receiving market or subsidiary company. The indicator of such a ratio is the indicator ‘FDI lightness’. A high value of this indicator is a sign of the large perspectives of a company in the sphere of international activities.

The specifics of FDI in the digital economy are determined, the key directions of such activities are described, and the peculiarities and differences of investing in the digital economy are shown.

This chapter aims to study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the inequality in countries, define it as a new conflict for sustainable development, and determine the prospects of conflict management. This chapter is based on the Theory of Conflicts and such methods as analysis of variations, trend and regression analysis, and simplex method. It is found that the variation of the COVID-19 case rate in the developed (by the example of G7) and developing (by the example of BRICS) countries was very high (140.99%). The variation of the COVID-19 death rate is lower, but it remains rather high (63.29%). The economic growth rate for the whole sample of countries under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic reduced by 404.16% in 2021, while the quality of life reduced by 1.86% on average. The COVID-19 pandemic increased the inequality in countries, thus creating a new conflict of sustainable development. The perspectives of conflict management of sustainable development are connected to the improvement of the practice of using digital technologies, which helps to reduce the inequality in countries. By the example of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the offered recommendations would have allowed reducing the decline of economic growth rate by 95.01% and preventing the decline in quality of life.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the perspectives and to adapt the analysis of “underdevelopment whirlpools” to the current needs of state management of digital modernization of the regional market of educational services in the aspect of determination and assessment of its disproportions as a tool of managing the regional market of education and managing the process of reorganization of regional universities in the conditions of transition to Industry 4.0.

Analysis of “underdevelopment whirlpools”, adapted by the authors to the specifics of the regional market of educational services, is used. The statistical basis for this paper includes the information and analytical materials as a result of monitoring the effectiveness of activities of educational organizations of higher education and the materials of the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation.

“Underdevelopment whirlpools” of the Kirov branch of St. Petersburg University of the Humanities and Social Sciences are analyzed, and reorganization of this university is recommended. “Underdevelopment whirlpools” in Kirov Oblast are analyzed, and an increase of regulation of this market is recommended.

It is substantiated that the method of analysis of “underdevelopment whirlpools” could be a tool of managing the regional educational market and managing the process of reorganization of regional universities in the conditions of transition to Industry 4.0. The advantage of analysis of “underdevelopment whirlpools”, as compared to the existing similar methods of assessment of disproportions in the development of the regional market of educational services (e.g. comparative analysis and plan-fact analysis), is the possibility not only to evaluate the static underrun from the model/plan but also to study its dynamics (depth and speed of sucking into “underdevelopment whirlpool”), which allows achieving high precision of the results of assessment.

The purpose of this study is to substantiate the necessity and to develop the innovative mechanism of government support for the investment activities of digital universities for provision of region’s investment attractiveness in the conditions of Industry 4.0.

The authors use the method of regression analysis for determining the dependence of the aggregate volume of investments (internal and external), which are attracted into the regional economy, on the volume of investments into fixed capital in the sphere of education (as the indicator of investment activities in the sphere of digital education) by the example of the regions of the Volga Federal District of the Russian Federation in 2018.

It is substantiated that the modern Russian mechanism of government support for investment activities of universities (including digital), which is based on such tools as norming and standardization, tax preferences and co-financing, does not allow for full implementation of the existing potential of digital universities in increasing region’s investment attractiveness in the conditions of Industry 4.0, which reduces the investment rating and volume of attracted investment resources in the regional economy – as is shown by the example of the regions of the Volga Federal District of the Russian Federation.

The determined problem could be solved by the presented innovative mechanism of government support for the investment activities of digital universities for provision of region’s investment attractiveness in the conditions of Industry 4.0. It is implemented on the basis of new – for modern Russia – tools: information and consultation support for investment activities and institutional support for integrating digital universities for joint realization of the investment projects in a region. The advantage of the developed mechanism is transfer of the financial load and responsibility for the investment activities from the state to digital universities because of the creation of market stimuli for conducting these activities.