The state-of-the-art analysis of the underlying factors of the digital divide within the EU and the Southeast Asia
The analysis will be based on the literature review and, also, on the qualitative analysis of recently published indicators (e.g., EIBIS, 2021, Digitalization in Europe 2020-2021: Evidence from the EIB Investment Survey, Luxembourg: European Investment Bank) and survey data drawn from the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) of Eurostat (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/microdata/community-innovation-survey ), World Bank enterprise dataset (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/en/enterprisesurveys), and other relevant country-based surveys. This analysis will enable us to identify possible economic, social, political, and technological factors that may explain the digital divide within the EU (Borowiecki, R., Siuta‐Tokarska B., Maroń J., Suder M., Their A., and K. Żmija, 2021: Developing Digital Economy and Society in the Light of the Issue of Digital Convergence of the Markets in the European Union Countries, Energies, 14, 2717, https://doi.org/10.3390/en14092717; Gal, P., Nicoletti, G., Renault, T., Sorbe, S., and C. Timiliotis, 2019: Gigitilisation and Productivity: In Search of the holy grail- Firm-level empirical evidence from European countries, OECD WP 1533.; Crespo Cuaresma, J. and Lutz, S.U., 2021: Modelling and projecting digital trends in European regions: An econometric framework. Regional Studies, Vol. 55/10–11, pp. 1696–1710. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2021.1976746) and within the Southeast Asia (Tipton, F. B., 2002: Bridging the Digital Divide in Southeast Asia: Pilot Agencies and Policy Implementation in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Asean Economic Bulletin, 19(1), 83–99. https://doi.org/10.1355/ae19-1f; Apriliyanti, I. D., Kusumasari, B., Pramusinto, A., & Setianto, W. A., 2021: Digital divide in ASEAN member states: analyzing the critical factors for successful e-government programs. Online Information Review, 45(2), 440–460. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir-05-2020-0158) and formulate relevant hypotheses for individual EU and associated countries, Southeast Asian countries, groups/clusters of countries, or Europe and Southeast Asia as a whole. A deeper analysis of these clusters will also help to identify any idiosyncratic features that these countries share regarding the use of digital technologies as a basis for the empirical implementation that follows at subsequent stages of the project.