ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the cardinal intent, in which digital technologies play a key role in building a sustainable future, revealing disparities between digitally equipped companies and those that are still implementing digital solutions. It showed the difference between urban, rural and remote areas with good connections. This paper is divided into two parts. The first aim is to evaluate the performance of the digital economy and society according to its basic dimensions and quantify and compare the position of 28 European Union countries (considering Great Britain as a member) in the international area using DESI - (Digital Economy and Society Index). It will look to evaluate the overall change in the development of the Slovak Republic between individual periods based on the main dimensions of the composite index. The second part aims to find the clusters of the European Union countries by using data on their rankings within the five dimensions of DESI. Correlation analysis is used to meet the first aim, cluster analysis is used to meet the second aim. The data are obtained from the Ministry of Investment, Regional Development and Informatization of the Slovak Republic and the database of the European Centre for Digitization. The results show a statistically significant correlation in the rankings of the EU countries between the analysed years 2016-2020. Moreover, among the European Union countries, there are internally homogeneous and external heterogeneous groups of countries with respect to ranking within DESI dimensions. Cluster analysis has not been used so far in analysing DESI in the existing literature. Therefore, the results of this paper fill such a research gap.Implications for Central European audience: Quantification and comparison of the position of 28 European Union countries in the international area using DESI can help to identify and improve the digital competitiveness of European Union countries. Knowing five dimensions of DESI, its specific subdimensions, and indicators can help to identify controversial areas to which the state should pay attention. This paper deals, in more detail, with the position of Slovakia in the digital competitiveness of the EU using DESI © 2023, Central European Business Review.All Rights Reserved.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The main feature of modern society today is the digital way of life combined with digitalisation. It affects every aspect of life. Today's main drivers of change are modern electronic communications and high-speed internet connections or services created by digitalisation. Thus, digi-talisation stimulates economic growth by creating new jobs, especially in the information and communication sector, increasing the savings of individuals and public and private companies, increasing productivity and providing new opportunities for personal development and motivation. Therefore, the digital economy poses significant challenges to the EU tax system. The identified tax challenges are nexus, data and characterisation, standard tax avoidance practices and direct and indirect tax risks. To address these challenges, the concept of Tax Administration 3.0 should be implemented. Under this con-cept, digital tools will make tax administration better organised and more efficient, both in combating abuse and improving the quality of tax reporting and compliance. Aim: This study aims to present the digital economy's direct and indirect tax challenges from an EU perspective. In addition, it will also present the current situation of the digital levy proposed by the European Commission and the level of Europe's digital performance among EU member states. Method: Following the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) method-ology, Europe's digital performance varied widely among EU member states between 2015 and 2020. Findings: The results show that the digital sector is highly involved in tax plan-ning practices and significantly affects Europe's digital performance. Moreover, there is no consensus on implementing the digital levy in EU member states since only a few of the EU member states have implemented the digital levy. Based on the findings, the author proposes introducing the digital levy in all EU member states to restore and maintain the sustainability of public finance, especially after the crisis COVID-19. © 2022 by Sabina Hodžić.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the globalization of services worldwide, due to restrictions that have been imposed for a certain period. In this context, the digitization of services, both in rural and urban areas, contributes to the development of Smart City and its integration into communities. Romania is a country that does not have digitized services, which are under development, but the COVID-19 pandemic has created a forced "opportunity" to accelerate this process. Also, the areas that had digitization projects, being integrated in Smart City projects, were advantaged during the period of restrictions during the state of emergency in 2020 or the state of alert from 2020 to 2022. The digitization of services depends on several factors such as infrastructure and internet connectivity. At European level it is the DESI index (index of the digital economy and society) which highlights digital competitiveness in the Member States of the European Union, the main areas of analysis being human capital, broadband connectivity, integration of digital technologies by businesses and digital public services. This study will focus on the development of digital public services between 2020 and 2021 and will see if they have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The indicators analyzed will be "people who use the Internet to interact with public authorities", "level of Internet access of households", "households with broadband access". The paper will highlight the state of digitalization of public services in Romania and how these services are ranked in the European context.
ABSTRACT
The article is the first to empirically analyze the effects of digitalization on corruption prevalence by using a sample of 27 European countries over the period 2015-2020. The authors utilize the digital economy and society index capturing five diverse aspects of digital transformation: connectivity, human capital, use of the internet, integration of digital technology, and digital public services to reflect digital performance. They also consider influences of specific digital activities, such as online transactions, business digitization, e-commerce, and e-government. The results indicate that digitalization, especially the use of internet services and digital public services, reduced the prevalence of corruption in European countries. However, the effect of digital transformation only appears in the long run. Notably, the authors highlight the importance of online administrative procedures on combating corruption, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABSTRACT
The article discusses the significance and trends of digitalisation in tourism. Phases of digital technologies development in tourism and factors influencing the uptake of digitalisation in tourism are presented. It was found that Europe is the world's leading tourism destination with 51 % of international tourists arrivals and 39 % of global international tourism receipts in 2019. However, the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism caused 69 % declines international tourist arrivals in Europe in 2020. This is due to the fact that since the beginning of the pandemic travel restrictions have been implemented and the external borders of the European Union have been closed. The negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was studied and it was found that the share of tourism contribution to GDP in European member decreased in 2020. Countries where tourism contributed the highest share to GDP in 2020 were Croatia (10,2 %), Greece (8,7 %) and Portugal (8,1%). It has been proven that digital technologies and data play important role in combating the pandemic Covid-19 and tourism recovery. Main tools of digitalisation in tourism that help to make travel safe and healthy are digital COVID certificate, mobile applications and web sites that propose information about epidemiological situation, restrictions and requirements for travellers. Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) of European Union countries are analysed. According to DESI the most advanced countries of European Union in 2018 were Denmark (70), Finland (68), Netherlands (68) and Sweden (65), while Croatia (35), Poland (36), Slovakia (39), Bulgaria (40) and Greece (40) have the lowest scores on the index. Recommendations for tourism recovery in post-COVID-19 are proposed. Main directions of tourism recovery should be: collaboration between destination management organisations and tourism enterprises, promotion of sustainable and inclusive tourism development, implementation of innovation and digital technologies in the process of tourism services consumption.