Authors:

E.V. Kislitsyn

Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Ekaterinburg, Russia

Abstract:

The functional plurality of modern IT companies generates a systematic discrepancy between the actual structure of the digital sector and the analytical tools inherited from the industrial era. Existing sector-specific classification systems reduce the multidimensional nature of platform ecosystems to a single dimension, thereby impeding antitrust regulation, corporate strategy formulation, and statistical measurement of the digital economy’s contribution. The study aims to develop an alternative approach to analysing the structure of the IT sector based on a functional-economic typology. The theoretical framework draws on rent theory, transaction cost economics, value chain analysis, and institutional theory. The research methods encompass the construction of a multi-circuit model, the development of an index system for measuring the intensity of functional roles, the computation of intensity vectors, and company clustering. The empirical base comprises financial reporting data, open-source data, and expert assessments covering 98 Russian IT companies. The paper proposes a model that differentiates the IT sector into four circuits: infrastructural, logical, coordinative, and transformational. We have identified statistically significant structural distinctions between the circuits, including a negative correlation between the coordinative circuit and the integration sub-circuit, and established the clustering of companies into specialised, hybrid, and integrated ecosystems. The findings contribute to the advancement of the functional approach to digital economy analysis and provide an analytical toolkit for identifying systemically significant platforms, positioning companies amid the erosion of sector boundaries, and offering an alternative measure of the IT sector’s contribution to GDP.

Keywords: digital economy; information technology sector; multi-circuit functional model; digital rent; platform ecosystem; intensity indices; industry structure; vertical integration; classification of IT companies.

For citation: Kislitsyn E.V. (2026). A multi-circuit functional model of the information technology sector. Upravlenets / The Manager, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 70–84. DOI: 10.29141/2218-5003-2026-17-3-5. EDN: IBUQEG.

Article info: received March 3, 2026; received in revised form April 27, 2026; accepted May 5, 2026