Digital Transformation of Companies as a Tool of Crisis Management: Аn Empirical Research of the Impact on Efficiency

The economic crisis generated by the coronavirus pandemic has acted as an accelerator for the digital transformation of almost all economic entities, as a result of which it has become a massive phenomenon. However, this situation has shown that the practical development of digital transformation as a tool for business management in the digital economy requires its theoretical understanding, the formation of a theoretical basis and a scientific definition of the essence of digital transformation of companies. In particular, one of the key problems in the implementation of digital transformation at the present time is the assessment of its effectiveness, since in most cases it does not always end successfully. At the same time, knowledge of approaches and criteria for the effectiveness of digital transformation can improve the quality of its implementation. The purpose of the study is to study approaches to assessing the effectiveness of digital transformation, to determine its nature and essence at a theoretical level, as well as to conduct an econometric analysis of the contribution of digital transformation to achieving the company's efficiency. In the course of the study the existing approaches to defining the essence of digital transformation were studied, its key elements that make up the basis were established, and the existing approaches to assessing the effectiveness of digital transformation of a company and its impact on business efficiency were studied. The absence of a unified approach to assessing the effectiveness of digital transformation and the main reasons for this problem have been established. Based on the results of the regression analysis of a sample of the largest companies of the pre-digital era, implementing digital transformation, the formulated hypothesis about the impact of digital transformation on the short-term performance of the company (profitability) was refuted, which allowed us to assume the strategic nature of this tool, the results of which are formed over a lag of time. When writing the article, various scientific research methods were used: deduction and induction when conducting empirical analysis of the activities of companies implementing digital transformation, analytical methods and regression analysis. The obtained results of the study contribute to the development of the theory of assessing the effectiveness of digital transformation of business, anti-crisis management and determine the directions for further theoretical developments.