This paper examines a new approach to defining digital ecosystems. Within the digital economy of ecosystems, competition is eliminated, and organizations form unions and alliances in order to work together and cooperate to reach a set goal. This means a digital ecosystem can be viewed as a complex environment in which organizations without any hard ties operate. Digital ecosystems differ from traditional ecosystems in many ways. The business organization of the latter is based on management decision making by people. This paper presents theoretical foundations for developing digital ecosystems based on a literary review. Based on the logic of scientific search using the keywords “ecosystem” and “biological ecosystem”, the commonality of the properties of the digital ecosystem and the biological ecosystem is shown. The aim of the study is to identify common characteristics in biological, economic and digital ecosystems in order to substantiate the possibility of using the same approaches for research and modeling of such systems. A definition of a digital ecosystem is proposed by the authors which points out the main features of this kind of system and highlights the dominant role of modern digital technologies in the formation of the digital ecosystem. The paper looks at the distinctive features of digital ecosystems and characteristics similar to the characteristics of biological ecosystems, such as ecosystem participants, presence of limiting impacts, lack of vertical hierarchical communication. The developed model can be used to model digital ecosystems. The authors believe that the emergence of a trend in the transformation of ecosystems in the direction of expanding the collaboration of economic agents is reasonable. At the same time, digitalization helps to replace competition with collaboration. The paper finishes with a discussion of the obtained results and a plan for further research.

Globalization has given a powerful impetus to the development of international commercial activity and logistics management systems taking full advantage of cross-border networking. The solution lies at the intersection of information technologies, technical means of machine-to-machine (M2M) interaction, mobile high-speed networks, geolocation, cloud services, and a number of international standards. The current trend towards creating digital logistics platforms has set a number of serious challenges for developers. The most important requirement is the condition of sustainability of the obtained solutions with respect to disturbances in the conditions of logistics activities caused not only by market uncertainty but also by a whole set of unfavorable factors accompanying the transportation process. Within the framework of the presented research, the problem of obtaining the conditions for the stability of solutions obtained on the basis of mathematical models is set. At the same time, the processes of transferring not only discrete but also continuous material flows through complex structured networks are taken into account. This study contains the results of the analysis of the stability of solutions of differential systems of various types that simulate the transfer processes in network media. Initial boundary value problems for evolutionary equations and differential-difference systems are relevant in logistics, both for the discrete transportation of a wide range of goods and for the quasi-continuous transportation of, for example, liquid hydrocarbons. The criterion for the work of a logistics operator is the integral functional. For the mathematical description of the transport process of continuous and discrete media, a wide class of integrable functions are used, which adequately describe the transport of media with a complex internal rheological structure.

Nowadays, digitizing the data stream is enabling the evolution of logistics processes. The data-driven network logistics processes are evaluated by leading economic indicators. The purpose of this study is to further develop the algorithmic foundations of economic and mathematical modeling of logistics networks based on advanced technologies that the digitalization process provides. Methods of mathematical modeling of flows of various resources in logistic networks, the structure of which is presented in the form of a graph, are used in the work. The economic benefit lies in the implementation of the planning concept based on leading indicators. As a result, using a set of formalisms, a mathematical model has been developed, which will make it possible to search for optimal solutions based on the criterion of economic efficiency. The results obtained will find application not only in transport problems. Network logistics includes the transportation of liquid and gaseous materials through pipelines, energy through electrical networks. A universal mathematical model will allow the results to be applied in many industries and economic activities when it is required to make economically sound decisions based on a stream of digital data coming in real time.

The study of the transformation of retail chain stores (RCS) due to the impact of digitalization on them is a new problem. The main part of modern scientific research is devoted to separate directions of digitalization and does not consider conceptual aspects of these processes. The purpose of this article is to fill the existing research gap through the development of a new system concept of the digitalization impact on RCS transformations. The study shows the need to clarify the understanding of RCS strategic transformation caused by the drivers of different digitalization processes, which are not well understood today and are not taken into account when developing digitalization strategies. This situation has an extremely negative effect on the quality of RCS development and its competitiveness. The article consistently examines insufficiently covered problems in scientific literature and offers a new conceptual approach to the impact of digitalization on companies with regard to RCS transformation. New digitalization trends and their drivers have a deep impact on RCS transformations. A new system model is needed that integrates superdrivers and the impact of digitalization on the RCS transformation. Causal and heuristic forecasts of prospects, trends and results of digitalization, including contradictory results of AI development are included. We used materials from large retail chains “Magnit”, “Perekrestok” and “M.Video-Eldorado Group”. The research methods used were system modelling, cause and effect links building and heuristic forecasting based on logical models. The main results will be useful for researchers, managers, entrepreneurs and students in developing a clear understanding of digitalization development and its impacts, in order to better work out digitalization strategies and for the development of new directions of scientific research.

The goals of real business in the context of the digital transformation of international logistics networks and marketing channels have necessitated the application of a scientifically based theoretical approach to the development of a formalized description acceptable for predictive planning based on leading indicators. In the context of globalization and interstate and regional economic unions, this will lead to achieving the maximum end-to-end integration of digital platforms. Based on the analysis, the article presents the integration of digital logistics and marketing approaches with the mathematical models of the ecosystem organization of economic relations. The features of the organization of economic relations between contractors involved in the execution of virtual transactions and the material movement of resources were analyzed. The researchers considered prerequisites for the analytical description of interconnections between the participants of digital platforms in cross border e-commerce. The authors’ approach is based on the idea of both a sales funnel in marketing and a conversion funnel in digital transformation. Considering the integration of logistics and marketing, authors offer the definition of business echelons as stages of the consumer value creation. The theoretical contribution of this article consists in constructing a mathematical description of business echelons along the entire value chain. The developed analytical description of business echelons is acceptable both for embedding a digital management support system into various software products, and for conducting in-depth analysis and finding optimal solutions.