PapersFlow Research Brief
Digital Economy and Transformation
Research Guide
What is Digital Economy and Transformation?
Digital Economy and Transformation refers to the cluster of economic activities and processes driven by digital technologies that intersect with sustainable development and global competitiveness, encompassing digital transformation, innovation networks, knowledge management, and their impacts on economic performance and society.
This field includes 7,813 works focused on digital transformation, sustainable development goals, economic performance, and related areas such as human capital management and social media's political influence. Papers address challenges and opportunities in digitalization's effects on industries and global economies. Growth data over the past five years is not available.
Topic Hierarchy
Research Sub-Topics
Digital Maturity Models in Manufacturing
This sub-topic develops and validates frameworks assessing digital readiness in industrial firms. Researchers evaluate transformation stages, technologies, and performance impacts.
Digital Transformation in Maritime Transport
This sub-topic examines IoT, AI, and data analytics adoption in shipping and logistics. Researchers study efficiency gains, sustainability, and sectoral challenges.
Digitalization Impact on Economic Inequality
This sub-topic analyzes how digital economy affects poverty, social exclusion, and regional disparities. Researchers use EU and global data to model policy interventions.
Knowledge Management in Digital Innovation Networks
This sub-topic explores knowledge flows, collaboration platforms, and ecosystems in digital innovation. Researchers investigate firm strategies and network effects.
Industrial Policy for Digital Economy Development
This sub-topic assesses government strategies, regulations, and investments promoting digital growth. Researchers compare national approaches like Russia's information society plan.
Why It Matters
Digital transformation influences sectors like maritime transport, where Tijan et al. (2021) identified drivers, success factors, and barriers through a literature review in "Digital transformation in the maritime transport sector," cited 245 times, aiding strategic adoption in shipping. In manufacturing, De Carolis et al. (2017) developed a maturity model in "A Maturity Model for Assessing the Digital Readiness of Manufacturing Companies," cited 330 times, enabling companies to evaluate and improve digital readiness for better competitiveness. Russian-specific studies, such as Khalin and Chernova (2018) in "Digitalization and Its Impact on the Russian Economy and Society: Advantages, Challenges, Threats and Risks," cited 225 times, highlight digitalization's risks to society and economy, informing policy for sustainable development.
Reading Guide
Where to Start
"Digital transformation: conceptual framework" by Verina and Titko (2019) provides a foundational analysis of key elements and components, making it accessible for understanding core concepts before sector-specific applications.
Key Papers Explained
Verina and Titko (2019) in "Digital transformation: conceptual framework" establish the basic components, which De Carolis et al. (2017) build on in "A Maturity Model for Assessing the Digital Readiness of Manufacturing Companies" by applying them to manufacturing assessment. Tijan et al. (2021) extend this to maritime transport in "Digital transformation in the maritime transport sector," reviewing drivers and barriers, while Khalin and Chernova (2018) in "Digitalization and Its Impact on the Russian Economy and Society: Advantages, Challenges, Threats and Risks" contextualize impacts nationally. Шарапиева and Данабаева (2012) in "Social innovation: concepts, research fields and international trends" connect social dimensions to broader transformation trends.
Paper Timeline
Most-cited paper highlighted in red. Papers ordered chronologically.
Advanced Directions
Current research emphasizes sector-specific applications, such as maturity models in manufacturing (De Carolis et al., 2017) and maritime (Tijan et al., 2021), alongside national strategies like Russia's information society development (Isaev et al., 2019), with no recent preprints or news available to indicate shifts.
Papers at a Glance
Latest Developments
Recent developments in Digital Economy and Transformation research as of February 2026 highlight the increasing accessibility and affordability of digital goods and services, the strategic importance of AI specialization and sustainability, and the growing focus on digital governance and tokenization, with reports from the Digital Cooperation Organization, Deloitte, and the World Economic Forum emphasizing technological innovation, AI impact, and digital assets (det.dco.org, deloitte.com, weforum.org).
Sources
Frequently Asked Questions
What distinguishes social innovation from technical innovation?
Шарапиева and Данабаева (2012) in "Social innovation: concepts, research fields and international trends," cited 418 times, explain that social innovations differ from technical ones through their immaterial intangible structure. Social innovations address intensified social and economic problems identified in public discourse.
How does digital transformation apply to maritime transport?
Tijan et al. (2021) in "Digital transformation in the maritime transport sector," cited 245 times, review drivers, success factors, and barriers to digital transformation in maritime transport. Their work fills a gap in comprehensive overviews of sector-specific digital changes.
What is a maturity model for digital readiness in manufacturing?
De Carolis et al. (2017) in "A Maturity Model for Assessing the Digital Readiness of Manufacturing Companies," cited 330 times, propose a model to assess digital readiness levels in manufacturing firms. The model supports evaluation of technological capabilities and transformation progress.
What impacts does digitalization have on the Russian economy?
Khalin and Chernova (2018) in "Digitalization and Its Impact on the Russian Economy and Society: Advantages, Challenges, Threats and Risks," cited 225 times, describe digitalization as a trend based on digital representation of information, affecting economic and social development with both advantages and risks.
What are the key elements of digital transformation?
Verina and Titko (2019) in "Digital transformation: conceptual framework," cited 190 times, analyze textual information to specify key elements, components, and categories of digital transformation. Their research provides a deep understanding of the concept through various analytical techniques.
How does digitalization affect poverty risks in the EU?
Кwilinski et al. (2020) in "Digitalization of the EU Economies and People at Risk of Poverty or Social Exclusion," cited 189 times, investigate how a country's digitalization level impacts poverty and social exclusion risks across EU member states.
Open Research Questions
- ? How can maturity models like those for manufacturing be adapted to assess digital readiness in maritime transport?
- ? What specific risks of digitalization to social exclusion in the EU can be mitigated through targeted industrial policies?
- ? In what ways do innovation networks in the global networked economy enhance sustainable development goals?
- ? How do human capital management practices evolve under digital transformation strategies in information societies?
- ? What frameworks best integrate knowledge management with entrepreneurial leadership for economic performance?
Recent Trends
The field encompasses 7,813 works with sustained high citations for foundational papers, such as "Social innovation: concepts, research fields and international trends" (418 citations, 2012) and recent ones like "Digital transformation in the maritime transport sector" (245 citations, 2021), reflecting ongoing interest in sector applications and national impacts, though five-year growth data is unavailable and no preprints or news from the last 12 months or six months are reported.
Research Digital Economy and Transformation with AI
PapersFlow provides specialized AI tools for Business, Management and Accounting researchers. Here are the most relevant for this topic:
AI Literature Review
Automate paper discovery and synthesis across 474M+ papers
Systematic Review
AI-powered evidence synthesis with documented search strategies
Deep Research Reports
Multi-source evidence synthesis with counter-evidence
See how researchers in Economics & Business use PapersFlow
Field-specific workflows, example queries, and use cases.
Start Researching Digital Economy and Transformation with AI
Search 474M+ papers, run AI-powered literature reviews, and write with integrated citations — all in one workspace.
See how PapersFlow works for Business, Management and Accounting researchers