Digitalization and business activity. The struggle to Catch Up in CEE countries

Abstract

Increases in productivity and competitiveness of an economy are based mostly on the actions of companies in terms of providing technical capital to workers and of operations efficiency (management, financial, recruitment, finding markets and suppliers, internal and external communication, etc.) through digitalization. This paper deals with the way in which the economies and companies in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries manage to adapt to the trend that started, mostly after 2000, in digitalization; also, it analyzes the extent to which an increase in the degree of business upgrading via integrating digital technology into the business model leads to a surge in economic performances (productivity, exports) and, consequently, to a greater attractivity to foreign capital flows.