The article presents the results of the authors’ research the subject of

which are issues of the region fisheries industry development in a digital

economy. The paper presents the main problems of entrepreneurship in the

region, due to its exclave position. Those problems were the main deterrent on

its way to a competitive position among the Baltic Sea countries.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the institutional space of the Kaliningrad

region in the fisheries industry from the standpoint of the institutional

traps theory. The study allowed the authors to identify existing institutional traps

in the industry. There are institutional traps associated with the development

subsidy model, with the format of the region as a special economic zone (SEZ),

with the lack of small enterprises.

The authors of the article studied the issues related to the growing pressure of

the digital economy and determined the regulating directions of the fisheries

industry institutional traps in the Kaliningrad region.

The study offers the author’s view on a significant impact of the institutional

traps in the fisheries sector of the region in the context of the global transformation

of the country and the increasing pressure of universal digitalization.