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The explosion of digital technologies marks the beginning of a new industrial revolution. Digitalization has transformed not only our everyday lives, but also the entrepreneurial processes. We are now seeing the integration of digital and entrepreneurial ecosystems at the heart of the digital revolution with the rapid rise of platform organisations. We aim to track this integration using the Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystem (DEE) Index developed in Szerb et al. (2022). In the paper, we present the structure of the DEE index and the steps to calculate the composite indicator. Our study focuses on a comparative analysis of Hungary's digital entrepreneurship ecosystem, identifying its strengths and weaknesses for the period 2020-2022. The reference European countries were grouped into six categories, with Hungary being selected as one of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) EU members. In the DEE Index ranking of 170 countries in 2022, Denmark was at the top of the ranking, with the US second. Hungary is ranked 36th, 23rd in the EU, with Poland, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria trailing behind in the CEE countries. The four sub-indices, twelve pillars and 24 variables of the DEE Index are used to analyze the Hungary's digital entrepreneurship ecosystem profile. While we are relatively well placed in terms of laying the foundations of the digital economy and developing the physical infrastructure, the benefits of the platform economy are hindered by the relatively low number of fintech firms and the low level of digital skills of the population, while the diffusion and adoption of digital technologies is hampered by the digitalization deficiencies at the business level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Even with the progress in the understanding of regional entrepreneurial systems in developed economies, very little is known about how they function in South America. This study aims to address this research gap by examining the features of entrepreneurial systems in 22 regions in Colombia, Ecuador, and Uruguay using an adapted Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) methodology. The results of the present study reveal that, put together, the selected South American regions show higher average scores in entrepreneurial attitudes compared to countries at similar stages of economic development. Looking at the pillar level, South American regions are weak in ‚process innovation’ ‚internationalization’, and ‚technology absorption’, which have been identified as the regions' most critical bottlenecks. Moreover, relevant differences in individual entrepreneurial attitudes, abilities, and aspirations among urban and rural populations within the studied regions are also identified. The contribution from the empirical work presented here is twofold. First, this study validates the suitability of the GEI methodology for the analysis of regional entrepreneurial systems in a developing-country context. Second, it provides one of the first empirical investigations into regional entrepreneurial ecosystems in South America. This study's findings could be utilised as the basis for more context-sensitive regional entrepreneurship policy approaches in the studied regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]