Digital transformation and ICT sector performance in EU countries

  • Received October 22, 2022;
    Accepted December 23, 2022;
    Published January 23, 2023
  • Author(s)
  • DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.21(1).2023.05
  • Article Info
    Volume 21 2023, Issue #1, pp. 48-58
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Digital transformation is now one of the most important topics in all EU countries in creating and managing strategies and visions for states, businesses, organizations, and citizens. The ICT sector is currently one of the most important sectors with significant added value. The main purpose of the paper is to identify the efficiency of the digitalization of the economy and society concerning the performance of the ICT sector. This paper uses multi-criteria efficiency evaluation methods – Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA models). Inputs in the basic DEA model are the dimensions’ values of the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), which are also used to express the DESI summary indicator, such as human capital, connectivity, digital technology integration, and digital public services. Output in the DEA model indicates the ICT share of GDP. Finally, output-oriented DEA models are used to express the efficiency score. The analysis results show that Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, and Malta have a below-average level of DESI, but they can be classified as efficient. Italy, Lithuania, and Slovenia are the worst performers in the efficiency score. The next step was to express the efficiency scores in the DEA models in terms of different combinations of inputs and outputs. Malta was efficient in all fifteen DEA models. Based on these findings, Malta is considered significantly positive. Its approaches can serve as an example for other countries.

Acknowledgment
This paper was supported by the Slovak Ministry of Education’s Scientific Grant Agency VEGA: “Digital Economy and Changes in the Education System as a Reflection on Labor Market Requirements”. Project registration number: [Reg. No.: 1/0689/20].

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    • Figure 1. ICT share as % of GDP in EU countries
    • Figure 2. DESI in EU countries in 2018
    • Figure 3. DESI in EU countries in 2019
    • Table 1. Characteristics of inputs and output
    • Table A1. Efficiency scores in fifteen output-oriented VRS models in 2018
    • Table A2. Efficiency scores in fifteen output-oriented VRS models in 2019
    • Formal Analysis
      Eva Ivanová
    • Funding acquisition
      Eva Ivanová
    • Investigation
      Eva Ivanová
    • Project administration
      Eva Ivanová
    • Supervision
      Eva Ivanová
    • Visualization
      Eva Ivanová
    • Writing – review & editing
      Eva Ivanová
    • Conceptualization
      Eva Grmanová
    • Data curation
      Eva Grmanová
    • Methodology
      Eva Grmanová
    • Resources
      Eva Grmanová
    • Validation
      Eva Grmanová
    • Writing – original draft
      Eva Grmanová