Purpose This study aims to investigate whether digitalization accelerates structural transformation in African economies or reinforces existing structural inequalities. Design/methodology/approach Using panel data on African countries and a rigorous fixed-effects framework, complemented by dynamic System GMM estimation, the analysis provides a direct test of the digital structural transformation hypothesis. Findings The results show a strong and robust positive effect of internet penetration on structural transformation, even after controlling for key macroeconomic and demographic factors. Sectoral evidence reveals a clear mechanism: increased internet access reduces the share of agriculture while significantly expanding the services sector, confirming that digitalization actively reallocates economic activity across sectors. Crucially, interaction results show that the impact of internet penetration is stronger in slower-growing, less advanced economies, providing compelling evidence in favor of the digital leapfrogging hypothesis rather than the digital divide. Originality/value These findings establish digital infrastructure as a central driver of modern structural change and suggest that expanding internet access can serve as a powerful policy tool for accelerating inclusive development in Africa.
Purpose The study scrutinizes the structural dimensions of cybersecurity vulnerability in Global South (GS) countries. It focuses in particular on countries’ external technology dependencies in building national cyber capacity and incident response capabilities. The GS’s cybersecurity environment has significantly changed. These countries were once fringe players in the world’s cyber threat conversation, but are now among the most affected by cyberattacks. This study aims to investigate how dependence on foreign technology shapes cybersecurity capacity; how emerging technologies (artificial intelligence, internet of things, blockchain) affect digital sovereignty dynamics; and what role South-South cooperation can play in overcoming resource constraints. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a mixed-methods approach. It applies a qualitative narrative literature review and a descriptive analysis of quantitative data. Findings Using the lens of Dependency Theory, blending it with geopolitical dimensions, the study explains the findings in three analytically distinct dimensions: supply-chain dependence, normative dependence and capacity dependence. The analysis is presented through eight purposively selected country cases and situates geopolitical engagement by the United States, China and Russia within the dependency framework. The paper calls for hybrid, glocalized approaches that involve open-source options, South-South cooperation and adaptive governance to overcome dependency cycles. Originality/value Existing research tends to examine cybersecurity challenges in the GS in isolation, whether through individual incidents, regional snapshots or single policy dimensions. This paper brings these threads together by applying Dependency Theory to the cybersecurity domain and decomposing dependency into three distinct but interrelated categories: supply-chain, normative and capacity dependence. While existing scholarship has examined individual facets of digital reliance, limited research has systematically integrated supply-chain, normative and capacity dependencies into a unified structural framework to explain cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the GS.
Purpose This study aims to examine how national enabling conditions and institutional governance are associated with online public service development across Asian economies. Design/methodology/approach A longitudinal panel of 46 Asian economies across eight biennial waves from 2010 to 2024 is analyzed using the United Nations Online Service Index as an outcome. Two-way fixed-effects models examine economic capacity, human capital and digital connectivity, alongside six Worldwide Governance Indicators. Primary inference uses country-clustered CR2 standard errors with Satterthwaite-adjusted degrees of freedom, supplemented by conventional country-clustered and Driscoll–Kraay inferences. Findings Economic capacity and digital connectivity exhibit robust positive within-country associations with the development of online service delivery. Human capital remains positively associated with the outcome but is only marginally significant when enabling conditions are considered. Despite positive descriptive correlations, none of the six governance dimensions exhibited a robust within-country association beyond the enabling conditions under the primary inference procedure. Originality/value This study avoids equating national enabling conditions with dynamic capabilities and separates cross-country governance relationships from the within-country evidence. The findings qualify the assumptions that broad governance improvements necessarily correspond with short-run advances in online public services and provide longitudinal evidence from a heterogeneous Asian setting.
Purpose This paper aims to explain cross-national differences in central bank digital currency (CBDC) development by distinguishing broad digital-state capacity from observed digital-payment use. It treats CBDCs as public digital infrastructures and asks whether advancement is associated separately with administrative capability and with the salience of digital-payment use. Design/methodology/approach The study reconstructs a reproducible complete-case dataset of 109 jurisdictions by merging the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) CBDC project database as of 1 March 2024, the World Bank Global Findex 2021 indicators and the United Nations E-Government Development Index (EGDI) 2024. Ordered logit models estimate four CBDC stages. Diagnostics include a Brant-style proportional-odds test, correlation and variance-inflation analysis, a retail-CBDC outcome, an alternative account-reach measure, Firth penalized logit and simulated predicted probabilities. Findings In the preferred model, EGDI is positively associated with higher CBDC project stages, while digital-payment use remains positive but is marginal at the 5% threshold (p = 0.054); high-income status is negatively associated after conditioning on both digital variables. The proportional-odds restriction is not rejected and preferred-model VIFs remain at or below 3.11. The retail-CBDC ordered-logit model yields positive and significant coefficients for both digital variables, whereas digital-payment use remains positive but is not independently significant in the Firth advanced-stage robustness model. The EGDI-by-payment-use interaction is not significant. Originality/value This paper does not claim that cross-national CBDC estimation is new. It extends Auer, Cornelli and Frost by combining their updated public project-stage data with independently published digital-government and payment-use indicators, making all country-level observations and diagnostics visible. Its contribution is a transparent governance-capacity account with explicit nonclaims, temporal boundaries and reproducible country-level measurement.
Purpose This study aims to examine whether digitalization promoted regional convergence across the European Union between 2015 and 2023 or reinforced a persistent Digital Matthew Effect. This study focuses on how regional Digital Intangible Capital, combining research capacity, specialized human capital, digital adoption and institutional maturity, relates to economic performance and whether digital advantages spread beyond established innovation hubs. Design/methodology/approach The study analyzes 233 EU NUTS-2 regions in 2015, 2019 and 2023. It integrates New Economic Geography with a technological condensation framework, constructs an entropy-weighted Digital Intangible Capital Index and estimates time-stratified Spatial Durbin Models. Robustness is assessed using alternative index weights and k-nearest-neighbor matrices ranging from k = 2 to k = 15. Findings The results indicate a persistent Digital Matthew Effect and a stable core-periphery structure. Although aggregate dispersion in the index declines, this largely reflects convergence in basic digital access, while innovation-intensive capabilities remain concentrated. Direct effects of Digital Intangible Capital are positive and significant, whereas indirect spatial effects remain statistically insignificant across years and specifications. Research limitations/implications The analysis relies on three cross-sectional snapshots and therefore identifies conditional spatial associations rather than causal effects. Missing regional observations required hierarchical imputation, which may reduce variation in some indicators. Future research should use panel and micro-level data to identify knowledge-diffusion mechanisms more precisely. Practical implications EU Cohesion Policy should complement infrastructure investment with support for specialized skills, R&D capacity, institutional quality and durable cross-regional innovation networks. Social implications Persistent concentration of digital innovation may deepen regional inequality, brain drain and unequal access to high-value employment and wealth creation. Originality/value The study combines spatial econometrics, multidimensional intangible-capital measurement and a technological condensation framework to distinguish local returns from network-mediated effects and demonstrate that the identified pattern is robust to alternative weighting and spatial specifications.
