Basic industries of Russia’s industrial regions: The image of the future

Industrialisation remains the major factor of development in the era of radical changes. Its drivers – advanced digital production technologies – are transforming the entire industrial and spatial landscape. Industrial regions take a special role in these transformations. The research aims to identify trends in the development of basic industries in industrial regions and work out a method to form their new technological image. Methodologically, the study relies on the institutional theory, theories of sustainable and longterm technical and economic development; applies methods of comparative, statistical, structural analysis and neural network modelling. Considering the case of the Ural metal industries, the study reveals the main trends of development and possibilities of forming the image of future of the basic industries of Russia’s industrial regions, as well as specifies the factors that modify these trends under the New Normal. Due to institutional and technological transformations, the Russian metal industries have achieved impregnable positions in the world market. The paper substantiates the changes in the development of the basic industries linked with the formation of Industry 5.0 as the new management paradigm, which assigns priority to the ESG factors. The research demonstrates that an indispensable condition for the successful functioning of companies is the ability to cooperate and agree on decisions. The findings confirm that modernised metal and other basic industries through integrating green, digital and behavioural economy will not only maintain, but are likely to increase their importance in the economy of industrial regions.