CONCEPTUALIZATION OF SPATIAL BARRIERS IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF TRADE SYSTEMS UNDER GLOBALIZATION CHALLENGES

Abstract

Abstract

Theoretical and methodological foundations for studying the spatial-barrier transformations of trade systems under the influence of modern globalization challenges and geoeconomic shocks have been formed. The expediency of a fourcomponent classification of globalization factors affecting trade has been substantiated, distinguishing macroeconomic, geopolitical, technological, and infrastructural-environmental factors. The specific mechanism through which each group of factors influences the spatial localization of trade facilities, value chains, and the transformation of retail pricing strategies has been revealed. The cumulative effect of their interaction, expressed in the enhancement of spatial resistance and the formation of interregional asymmetries, has been uncovered. The author’s definition of the concept of “spatial barriers in trade” has been formulated as a system of objectively determined or artificially created material, infrastructural, geographical, institutional, and digital limitations that cause an increase in transaction and logistics costs and block the free movement of resource and commodity flows. An author’s typology of spatial barriers in trade according to their sources of origin and economic manifestations has been proposed, describing the impact of infrastructurallogistical, spatial-geographical, material-technical, and institutional-digital limitations on the deformation of enterprise cost structures. It has been proven that spatial barriers convert into additional last-mile costs, higher inventory holding norms, and increased transaction burdens. A theoretical model of spatial-barrier differentiation of trade development within the “core–periphery” system has been built, explaining the mechanism of trade capital drain from peripheral territories in favor of highly concentrated cores. The relationship between the level of total spatial resistance, inventory turnover speed, and trade network density has been formalized. Conceptual foundations for the formative alignment of trade space have been substantiated, based on a combination of infrastructural compensation and digital inversion to neutralize territorial resistance.