Comparison of the digital economy development parameters in the EU countries in the context of bridging the digital divide

Abstract

The widespread use of information and communication technologies and subsequent transformations have led to the formation of a digital economy (DE). The European Union, as an international organization, has become the subject of building such an economy, striving to bring member countries closer in the field of digitalization.The aim of this paper is to compare the DE development parameters of the EU countries based on cluster analysis and determine the most significant of them to solve the problems of bridging the digital divide between countries. For clustering, a feature DE vector of 20 indicators was created and the k-means algorithm and the Euclidean distance metric were used. For classification, the decision tree method was applied.Three clusters of EU countries were identified by the level of DE development (leaders, followers and outsiders), which allowed assessing their positions relative to each other. Key parameters that determine countries’ positions in the general rating are identified. A parameter chart is generated to control the establishment of DE in the EU countries, which, in addition to key parameters, includes maximum, minimum and harmonic mean values of these parameters by cluster. This characterizes the landscape of DE development in the EU countries, assesses the digital divide and is the basis for decision-making in the area of bridging this divide.

Digital Gap in EU Countries and its Impact on Labour Productivity and Global Competitiveness

“…Leading positions are occupied by North Europe countries, that correspond with other researches (Bilozubenko et al, 2020;Androniceanu et al, 2017Androniceanu et al, , 2019Chakravorti & Chaturvedi, 2017;Chipeva et al, 2018;Lucendo-Monedero et al, 2019 As the results of our investigation we can prove the correctness of our first hypothesis and partially proved second hypothesis (Table 4).…”

“…To provide cluster analysis at first, we have to define the key factors for division of EUmembers. In works (Androniceanu et al, 2019;Bilozubenko et al, 2020;Balcerzak & Pietrzak, 2017) the key classification factors were aspects of digitalization process. But the issues of economic effects of digitalization process need to be investigated deeply.…”

“…Although digitalization is spreading globally, there are global and regional leaders in ICT and digital development, that can be proved by different global rankings. Existing gaps motivate developing countries to bridge the global economic disparities caused by technological and digital gaps (Bilozubenko et al, 2020). On this reason analysis and comparing of digital economy parameters of different countries is actual, especially if countries represent the same region or join together like European Union.…”

“…They found significant difference in digital activity between developed and developing countries and between OECD member and not member countries. Bilozubenko et al (2020) defined five key indexes of digital development, and then on the base of such indexes EU countries were divided into three clusters: leaders, followers and outsiders.…”

Digitalization of Ukraine’s Economy: Current State and Creating Competitive Advantages

“…Various scientists nowadays study the problems of digital economy development and the formation of an innovative society, among which Amuso et al [1], who analyzed the opportunities and challenges of digital economy; V. Bilozubenko et al [2], who compared the digital economy development parameters in the EU countries; Semyachkov [3], who studied the digital economy in management of modern socio-economic relations; Nosova et al [4], who studied the digital economy in Russia's modern economy. As to Ukraine, Dannikov and Sichkarenko [5] formed the conceptual principles of digitalization of Ukraine's economy; Zhekalo [6], Podolchak et al [7] analyzed the problems and prospects of development of digital economy in Ukraine.…”