Higher Education and Digitalization of the Economy: The Case of Russian Regions
Published at : 07 Dec 2020
Volume : IJtech
Vol 11, No 6 (2020)
DOI : https://doi.org/10.14716/ijtech.v11i6.4431
Koroleva, E., Kuratova, A. 2020. Higher Education and Digitalization of the Economy: The Case of Russian Regions. International Journal of Technology. Volume 11(6), pp. 1181-1190
| Ekaterina Koroleva | Graduate School of Industrial Economics, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg, Polytechnicheskaya, 29, 195251, Russia |
| Anna Kuratova | Graduate School of Industrial Economics, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg, Polytechnicheskaya, 29, 195251, Russia |
Building
on the resource-based theory, we examine the association between the
digitalization of the economy and the quality of higher education in Russian
regions. We use the regression model to analyze data collected in Russian
regions from 2011 to 2018. The quality of higher education is measured by the
education potential in the regions. Regional factors of economic digitalization
are categorized by mobile and Internet activities, technological background,
and innovation activities. The information database contains official dates
drawn from federal and regional statistical sources. The results showed that
regions that had higher levels of innovation activities had a higher quality of
higher education. On the contrary, mobile and Internet activities had a weakly
negative influence on the quality of higher education. Our results are
controversial with respect to the technological background of the region and
its influence on the quality of higher education. Nonetheless, the study
provides insights into the resource-based theory, demonstrating that the
factors of economic digitalization increase the competitive advantage of the
region regarding education, and they play an important role in regional
sustainable development.
Digitalization; Education potential; Quality of education; Regional development
The
new trend to digitalization has penetrated each sphere of modern life,
including education. Recently, the education process has been significantly
transformed by the emergence of digital platforms, mobile educational
applications, audio classes, and so on. The transformation of education has led
to the increased accessibility of education, as well as changes in the skills
acquired from communication to visibility and involvement in the educational
process (Shcherbina,
2020). Most previous studies have analyzed the attitudes and
satisfaction of students with the digitalization of education (Chen et al., 2020; Popova et
al., 2020) and the development of convenient application interfaces (Korableva et al., 2019). To the authors’
knowledge, no previous study has interpreted digitalization as a competitive
resource in regions and a tool for upgrading the quality of education.
The theoretical background of this research is the resource-based theory (Barney et al., 2001). We propose that digitalization in territories, particularly regions, is a rare, difficult-to-imitate resource that influences the quality of higher education. We evaluate the association between digitalization and the quality of education in the case of Russian regions. One of the characteristic features of Russia is the unsustainable development of its regions, which is due to the uneven distribution of resources (e.g., human, social, material, etc.). This imbalance has been the source of serious long-term threats to and negative influences on the stability of the country’s development overall. Because of these characteristics, Russia is an interesting case for research.
In this study, we apply a cross-sectional regression model to
a set of data on Russian regions collected from 2011 to 2018. The research was
run before the COVID pandemic, so the influence of the COVID pandemic was not
analyzed. The quality of higher education is measured by the education
potential of the region. Digitalization factors are distributed according to
the following categories: mobile and Internet activities; technological
background; and innovation activities in the region. This research is based on
information drawn from regional statistical sources (Federal
Service State Statistics, 2020).
The results of our study showed that
regions with higher levels of innovation activity had a higher quality of
higher education. On the contrary, mobile and Internet activities had a weak
negative influence on the quality of higher education in the regions. Our
results are controversial regarding the influence of the regions’ technological
background on the quality of higher education. Nonetheless, the study
demonstrates that the factors of innovation and mobile and Internet activities
in the region led to increased competitive advantages in education, and they
played an important role in sustainable development.
The article contributes to the
literature on the resource-based theory (Barney,
1991; Rothaermel,
2012; Sharma et al., 2019), in which digitalization is considered a
difficult-to-imitate resource for improving the quality of education in
regions. It could be concluded that digitalization would have a positive
influence on the assessment of education in Russian regions because, in
general, the implementation of digital technologies improves its quality and
contributes to the further development of the economy.
The paper is structured as follows.
Section 2 provides a literature review. The data collection and methods are
described in section 3, and the results are discussed in section 4. Finally,
section 5 provides a discussion of the findings and concludes the paper.
Using a resource perspective, we
analyzed the relationship between the factors of economic digitalization and
the quality of higher education. The results were considered from a regional
perspective. We used the methodology developed by Russian authors Balatsky
and Ekimova (2009), and we regarded the
education potential of regions as the quality of higher education.
The results of our study showed
that high levels of innovation activity were correlated with the high quality
of higher education in the region. Thus, H3 was confirmed because the
introduction of technological marketing and increased operational innovations
had a strong positive relationship with the quality of education. The variables
in the ratio of inventive activity demonstrated the strongest influence,
thereby stimulating the creation of innovation platforms based on higher
education institutions and providing opportunities for students to consolidate
their acquired professional skills.
Innovative activities in regions,
such as the creation of special educational platforms, transformed the
educational process, increasing the accessibility of education and drawing the
attention of students. The new technologies aroused the interest of students
and involved them in the educational process. The studies reviewed reflected
the results obtained, which showed that complex and challenging academic tasks
based on students' prior knowledge allowed them to develop their own
understanding of the content. These tasks were more likely to increase
students' motivation and confidence in their cognitive abilities in applying
technology. The formation and introduction of innovative tools in Russian
regional universities may contribute to the emergence of strong universities
that engage in applied and fundamental research, closely interact with
industry, and introduce knowledge in research (Medinsky,
2018). Moreover, the introduction of innovative technologies would
increase the attractiveness of universities and increase their effectiveness in
preparing competitive specialists for the labor market.
Improving the quality of education
in Russia’s regions depends on digitization because of the introduction of the
online educational environment in universities through the creation of online
courses and their application in the educational process.
The hypothesis (H2) that the
region's technological background has a positive influence on the quality of
education was ambiguous. Research has shown that digital economic factors
create stronger competitive advantages for regions in education and play an
important role in regional development. The technological background will ensure
a quality digital transformation in education, which will have a positive
influence on the quality of education in general. However, the lower share of
digitization of the network in cities characterized the higher quality of
education in regions. This finding neither confirms nor rejects H2. The further
development of the technological background will ensure the quick reorientation
of education to accommodate new tasks in the labor market (Plotnikova, 2018).
The factors related to mobile and
Internet activities (H1) had a weak negative influence on the quality of
education in the region. This finding is explained by the following: according to the
requirements of the Ministry of Higher Education, any educational organization
should have a personal website, which is the reason that the share of such
educational organizations is high. Another statistically significant variable
related to mobile and Internet activities was the share of organizations using
Internet access. It had a slightly negative influence, but it was statistically
significant. This influence could be interpreted as the gap between educational
organizations and real sector enterprises in Russia. Unfortunately, the
educational process in educational organizations lacks the support of industry
professionals.
The factors related to mobile and
Internet activities include entertainment as well as the educational
environment, which could have affected the negative dynamics of the indicator (Chen, 2019). According to statistics, many
students spend much time in contacting social networks or playing games, which
has a negative influence on the educational process (Wang,
2013).
Our study revealed that the factor
of economic digitalization led to a stronger competitive advantage for regional
education, and it played an important role in regional sustainable development.
Based on the findings of this study, it could be concluded that digitalization
has a positive influence on the assessment of the quality of education in
Russian regions. In general, the introduction of digital technologies in
various areas, including education, allows for improving quality and
contributes to further economic development. Moreover, during the current
pandemic, the use of distance technologies and online courses is inevitable.
Their introduction is aimed at increasing the level of safety, particularly
regarding the health of students, administrative staff, and teaching staff.
The reported study was funded by RFBR according to
the research project No. 18-310-20012.
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