engleski

Impact of Information and Communication Technology to the Competitiveness of European Countries - Cluster Analysis Approach

Information and communication technology (ICT) has been recognized as a key factor in the economic development and growth of countries, especially in the last decades. Development of ICT contributes to higher productivity, efficiency, gross domestic product, and a higher level of innovation activity. According to the European Commission, ICT drives 20% of productivity growth in the European Union countries [7]. The development of ICT impacts higher overall competitiveness in numerous ways. A positive impact of ICT usage can be found in many areas: the financial sector, health organizations, education and science, and public organizations. In this paper, we investigate how ICT influences competitiveness of European countries through four areas (elearning, personal usage of the Internet, e-commerce, e- government). We attempt to determine if there are differences in the economic development of those countries and how ICT affects them. In order to attain this goal, we have conducted a two-stage analysis. In the first stage, the cluster analysis using K-means was used to organize European countries into sensible groupings for the year 2011, according to their usage of ICT. Defined clusters are compared using Anova analysis according to their competitiveness indices, using the Global Competitiveness Report.

information-communication technology ; competitiveness ; clusters

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