The digital entrepreneurial ecosystem in the European Union: evidence from the digital platform economy index

ABSTRACT

Digital platforms play a central role in the development of the Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystem (DEE). The growing body of research addressing the issue of imbalances in DEEs has raised the challenge of how to recommend policies specifically designed to overcome the causes of such imbalances. This paper explores the issue of platformization in three developed and high-income countries in the European Union: Germany, France and Austria. The framework and empirical measurement of the Digital Platform Economy (DPE) Index are used to analyze the state of DEE in these three countries, identify the most prominent weaknesses that could be barriers, and propose policy recommendations to overcome these barriers and promote the development of DEE. The results of the three-step investigation present the current state of DEE in each country and find that similar constraining elements in the Digital Multi-Sided Platforms of the three countries have the most potential to systemically disrupt the DEE balance. Tailor-made policies with a holistic approach are recommended to address these constraining elements and target overall DEE growth. The results of this study are expected to motivate future research highlighting the issues surrounding multi-sided platform markets in the context of digital economic development in the European Union.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital ecosystem
• entrepreneurial ecosystem
• digital platform
• digital economy
• European Union

Acknowledgment

The author gratefully acknowledges the support provided by POLISS (https://poliss.eu), the funded project under European Union’s H2020 Research and Innovation Programme, Grant Agreement No. 860887. Views and opinions are only those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

The author would also like to thank Professor Laszlo Szerb, Professor Tamás Sebestyén, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticism and suggestions.

Author biography

Eristian Wibisono holds a master’s degree in Economics from Jambi University (Indonesia). He is currently pursuing his PhD in Regional Development at the University of Pecs, Hungary and is a research fellow on the Policies for Smart Specialization (POLISS) consortium research project funded under the European Union's H2020 Research and Innovation Programme. He is also a civil servant at the Jambi Province Industry and Trade Office, Indonesia. His research interests are regional economics, innovation and technology, entrepreneurship, and European regional research and innovation policies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the POLISS (https://poliss.eu), the funded project under European Union's H2020 Research and Innovation Programme, Grant Agreement No. 860887.