2026
Building a sustainable and innovative world in the digital age: A cross-country study
PEREZ-RICO, Cristina; Alicia FERRADAS-GONZALEZ; Carlos GARCIA-FERNANDEZ and Jiří MAZUREKBasic information
Original name
Building a sustainable and innovative world in the digital age: A cross-country study
Authors
PEREZ-RICO, Cristina; Alicia FERRADAS-GONZALEZ; Carlos GARCIA-FERNANDEZ and Jiří MAZUREK
Edition
Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 2026, 2530-7614
Other information
Language
English
Type of outcome
Article in a journal
Field of Study
50200 5.2 Economics and Business
Country of publisher
Netherlands
Confidentiality degree
is not subject to a state or trade secret
References:
Impact factor
Impact factor: 15.500 in 2024
Marked to be transferred to RIV
Yes
Organization unit
School of Business Administration in Karvina
UT WoS
Keywords in English
Digitalization; GDP; SDG; Sustainability; Economic freedom; Cross-country study
Tags
International impact, Reviewed
Changed: 18/5/2026 10:28, doc. Mgr. Jiří Mazurek, Ph.D.
Abstract
In the original language
This paper investigates the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by a set of 75 countries from around the world. We apply a global digitalization index as the main explanatory (independent) variable and three additional variables: gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, Index of Economic Freedom, and population density. We apply correlation and regression analysis as a research method. Our main finding is that digitalization is generally positively correlated with sustainability and economic freedom, and negatively correlated with population density. Subsequently, we show that the situation differs for high-income countries, with GDP per capita above 20,000 USD, and low-income countries, with GDP per capita below 20,000 USD. In the former case, only digitalization is statistically significant at the 0.05 level. In the latter case, economic freedom is statistically nonsignificant, while GDP per capita, digitalization and population density are highly significant. These findings emphasize the critical role of digitalization in advancing global sustainability, and highlight variations based on economic contexts.