The Digital Platform Economy and the Entrepreneurial State: A European Dilemma

Abstract

AbstractThe application of big data, new algorithms, and cloud computing is creating a digital platform economy (DPE) built around platform organizations and their platform-based ecosystem. We use the DPE Index to examine Europe’s digital efficiency across countries and explain its global position by analyzing Brexit and the electric vehicle industry. We argue that the United Kingdom left the European Union because E.U. regulations were holding back the U.K.’s strong DPE and that a weak DPE is holding German back from being a leader in the electric vehicle industry. The problem for Europe’s DPE is that the entrepreneurial state is strong and the private sector is weak.