Digital Imperative for the Development of the Global Economy

Abstract

The article substantiates the hypothesis that there is no alternative to digital transformation of business, public administration, and society as a whole in the current composition of scientific and technological trends in global development. The article systematically identifies digital technologies based on big data, grid computing, blockchain and actually implemented in global business, such as the industrial Internet, robotics, digital marketing, fintech, govtech, e-medicine and education, etc. It is emphasised that they are the key drivers of the digital economy as a new phenomenon and a new reality. The author summarises the conceptual and categorical apparatus and shows the archetypes of the digital economy. Its status is illustrated in the format of indicators of influential global indices. The article states the obvious positive aspects of digitalisation of the economy – accessibility, transparency and efficiency of resource use, high productivity and cheaper services, fast access to markets, communication mobility, energy efficiency and environmental friendliness – and shows its possible negative aspects, such as cybercrime, electricity shocks, unemployment, insecurity of personal information, discrediting traditional cultural and behavioural values. ASWOT analysis of the digitalisation of the Ukrainian economy according to the Global Digital Competitiveness and Network Readiness indices is carried out and the ways and priority tasks of its intensification in the European integration direction of development are outlined – 4G mobile coverage, availability of clean energy, neutralisation of high investment risks, proper legal regulation of intellectual property and ICT activities. The key role of e-governance strategies and practices in the process of digital transformation of national economies is substantiated on the basis of a comparative cross-country analysis. The authorʼs own logic of digital economy transformation is presented, based on promising scientific and technological trends generated by nano-, bio-, neuro-, quantum- and artificial intelligence. The author substantiates the objective conditionality of the formation of a smart economy, primarily in the format of smart enterprises, cities and communities.