Four waves of digitalisation of the economic system in the EU countries and Ukraine

Abstract

The digitalisation of the economic system of the EU countries is taking place in stages corresponding to certain "waves". Each wave of digitalisation represents, on the one hand, the accumulation of technological changes (for example, the spread of electronic operations, automated product management systems and the creation of electronic enterprises). And on the other hand, the transformation of industrial and socio-economic relations in society (digital socialisation and institutionalisation, the establishment of the information society). The emergence of a separate wave of digitalisation of the economy begins only as a result of the implementation of the relevant prerequisites, but in the same two planes: technological and socio-economic. At the same time, each previous wave of digitalisation creates the necessary material and socio-economic foundation for the transition to a new level of digitalisation of the economic system. The purpose of this study is to identify the relevant stages of digitalisation of the economic system in the EU based on the generalisation and systematisation of technological changes. The basis of this study is a formational and technocratic approach, based on a systematic analysis of the national economy as a complex entity, the elements of which are subject to permanent and differentiated digitisation. The analysis is based on the principle of dialectical unity of transformation of system components. Disclosure of systems analysis is due to the use of auxiliary methods, namely: graphical modelling, dynamics method, equilibrium and boundary analysis, deduction and induction, analysis and synthesis. The scientific novelty of the study is conditioned by the fact that the authors proposed a graphical model of the impact of digitalisation on the production sphere, as well as the impact of digitalisation on the distributive services with the allocation of the point of social optimum. The preconditions and characteristic features of each stage of digitalisation of the economic system in the EU countries are determined. The need to create a single information space for the integration of automated management system (AMS) into enterprise (for example, CALS) has been proved. The findings of the study can be used by: public administration bodies to determine the social optimum level of digitalisation, as well as to develop a protection policy to promote digitalisation in the economic system of the country; enterprises to select CALS-compliant business automation systems.