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Research background: Digitalization in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated significantly across Europe, including in regions that are at the stage of catch-up development. However, as innovative technologies are intensively integrated into everyday life, the digital gap between the EU countries is increasing. The widening digital gap is becoming a serious threat to achieving the EU's sustainable development goals and building a sustainable European society. Purpose of the article: The purpose of the article was to empirically substantiate the inclusiveness and convergence of the digital strategy in the EU countries. Methods: Using the method of fuzzy sets, the level of asymmetry in access to transactional (e-commerce), information (cloud computing), operational (artificial intelligence) technologies in the EU countries was assessed. The negative impact of the digital gap within the countries (the gap between small, medium, large companies) and the global digital gap (the gap between EU countries) on the competitiveness of countries was established, for which correlation analysis and the Granger causality test were used. Findings & value added: The findings of this study contribute to the literature of digital transformation and digital gap of European countries. The impact of the digital gap in transactional, information, operational technologies on the competitiveness of countries is differentiated depending on the level of digitalization of the country. Cluster groups of countries are determined by the convergence of digitalization and ways to ensure long-term competitiveness. The directions for reducing the digital gap in the EU countries are substantiated by changing the priorities of spending on innovation and increasing productivity, diversifying the digital technologies used. The empirical results obtained can serve as a basis for improving the effectiveness of the digitalization policy in the EU countries in accordance with individual convergence goals. The main added value of the paper is related to the presented research procedure, which can be used in analyses of digital technologies development also for other countries. The results provide valuable insights into evaluating the digital technologies in European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the paper is to analyze the positioning of Ukraine in the global indices of innovative development and competitiveness, to evaluate the indicators of innovation activity and, based on the outcomes of the research, to determine the place of Ukraine in the global innovation space. The dynamics of innovation activity on an international scale based on the consolidated indicators of the Global Innovation Index are presented. Ukraine's position in it and progress in achieving goals to better understand the processes that stimulate or constrain innovation are determined. Econometric methods to generalize the positioning of Ukraine in the global innovation space and the DEA method to study the relative individual effectiveness of the innovation environment and innovation activities in Europe are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the complexity of the global epidemiological situation, the struggle for the competitiveness of national economies is exacerbated. For Ukraine, whose economy has now taken the form of deindustrialization, the intensification of innovation is a necessary, extremely important condition for its further development. It was previously thought that the socio-economic development and growth of countries depended mainly on their capital and labor resources, while other lesstangible resources, such as information, training, infrastructure development were treated as external factors influencing market behavior only indirectly. However, overtime, the idea that knowledge management is a determining factor in productivity in both modern and traditional economies is becoming increasingly entrenched. The paper proposes results of the research of Ukraine’s positioning in the global innovation space. It also determines the necessity of priority development of the innovative sphere of the country against the backdrop of crisis phenomena and assesses the position of Ukraine in the Indices characterizing the level of development of the innovative component of the competitiveness of the country’s economy. It underlines the insufficient level of innovation infrastructure development in the country. The authors consider that the basis of Ukrainian innovative competitiveness is the development of institutions, infrastructure and business. These areas need special state support, as their effective implementation is the main competitive advantage of Ukraine. The research was conducted according to the Global Innovation Index sub-indices on the horizon of 2013—2021. Econometric methods are used to generalize the positioning of Ukraine in the global innovation space and the DEA method to study the relative individual effectiveness of the innovation environment and innovation activities in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]