Digitalization, entrepreneurship and competitiveness: an analysis from 19 European countries

Abstract

In light of the economic situation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, economists have claimed that an improvement in competitiveness can enhance economic growth. A greater degree of competitiveness allows the relevant actors to engage in entrepreneurial activity in new markets and to create market niches that promote job creation. Among the factors that can stimulate competitiveness, entrepreneurship and digitalization play relevant roles. Digital technologies have generated new business opportunities for entrepreneurs; likewise, digital entrepreneurship allows different entrepreneurs to connect via a platform, thus facilitating access to global markets with growth potential. The fundamental objective of this paper is to study the relationships among digitalization, entrepreneurship and competitiveness in light of the factors that influence the digitalization process. An empirical analysis of 19 European countries is conducted, and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis is used to obtain the combinations of economic and social variables that affect competitiveness and entrepreneurship. The results of the empirical analysis show that to stimulate entrepreneurial activity, a country must exhibit an environment that is favourable to digitalization as well as an investment in talent that allows the relevant actors to take advantage of the benefits of digital technologies.

Impact of Digitalization on Global Sustainable Development Across Countries

“…In the last decade, existing researchers investigated the role of digitalization, digital technologies, and ICT in social-economic development, human development, financial development, energy consumption, the labor market, labor productivity, and the entrepreneurship ecosystem (Khater & Allah, 2017;Galindo-Martín et al, 2023;Jyoti & Singh, 2023;Kim et al, 2022;Secundo et al, 2022;Tiutiunyk et al, 2021). Most studies reviewed the impact of digitalization on a specific component of sustainable development (Xu et al, 2022).…”

“…ICT is beneficial to increase easy accessibility of markets for consumers and producers. ICT, therefore, is a key driver to increase new business opportunities for entrepreneurs (Galindo-Martín et al, 2023;Jiao & Sun, 2021). All economic agents can reduce transaction costs using digital technologies and ICT in production activities and market (Bon, 2021).…”

“…Digitalization is also a determinant of green innovation (Luo et al, 2023). Further, digitalization helps to generate extensive jobs, new business opportunities, and green entrepreneurial activities (Galindo-Martín et al, 2023;Xu et al, 2022). Digitalization is helpful to create new markets, green innovation, green technology, and green environment (Galindo-Martín et al, 2023).…”

“…Information about government policies, scientific outcomes, and social-economic issues can be disseminated among a large community through digital infrastructure, i.e., social media and online platforms. Thus, digitalization is also supportive for increasing the skills and knowledge of people (Xu et al, 2022) and competition across countries (Aleksandrova et al, 2022;Galindo-Martín et al, 2023). Digitalization is also an important driver to increase transfer of technology across countries.…”

Strategies for digital entrepreneurship success: the role of digital implementation and dynamic capabilities

“…Consequently, DI refers to the ability to effectively put digital technology to work (Leonard-Barton and Kraus, 1985). Implementing useful digital technologies is imperative for the survival of firms because it increases their efficiency and competitiveness; thus, it promotes creating and sustaining a competitive edge (Allataifeh et al, 2021;Galindo-Mart ın et al, 2023). As a fundamental pillar of Schallmo et al's (2022) holistic digitalization theory, DI supports firms in executing their digital strategies and transforming their business models.…”