The role of Digital capital in Extracting and appropriating surplus Value amidst Kondratiev wave shifts

The relevance of this study lies in the necessity of theoretical comprehension and the creation of adaptive strategies for economic system management, given today’s global unpredictability. The subject focuses on the transformation of traditional economic models, which is occurring through large- scale structural shifts, which coincide with the succession of Kondratiev long waves and the shift to the sixth technological paradigm. This research examines the socioeconomic relations, patterns, and cause-and-effect links emerging during the transformation of the global economic system, globalization, and the modification of economic policy under the end-to-end effect digital technologies during the transition from the fifth to the sixth K-wave. This study aims to offer a theoretical and methodological basis for understanding the nature and structure of digital capital. It achieves this by combining Marxist political economy principles with a systems analysis of current digitalization trends. The authors achieved the objectives: implementation of Marxist political economy theory combination with the analysis of digital processes was substantiated based on the limitations of alternative economic theories, as well as the applicability of the K-waves for the analysis of the initial accumulation of digital capital. The authors adapted the conceptual framework of political economy to the realities of modern economics. Also, they presented an analysis of the evolving profit- making model in contemporary settings, highlighting digital capital’s role in establishing a new technological hierarchy and assessed the impact of digital capital on the economy. Macroeconomic indicators confirming the change in K-waves were systematically analyzed and scientifically evaluated. The problems and prospects for the accumulation of digital capital were identified and described. The result led to the substantiation of the need for adaptive government regulation models that acknowledge the fundamental transformation of the global capitalization paradigm. The study’s scientific innovation stems from its combined method of examining structural shifts and proposing «digital capital» as a crucial driver of global economic change. A conclusion was reached on the necessity of adaptive government regulation models, accounting for the global capitalization paradigm’s fundamental reorganization.

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