Achieving SDG4 and SDG5 in the digital transformation of European companies: a longitudinal study

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 21st century, major innovations and important technological advances have led to a socio-economic paradigm shift characterized by robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, as well as the use of Social Networks in companies, creating the industrial revolution 5.0, based on digital transformation. The aim of this research focuses on analyzing the implementation of digitalization in European companies, through socio-economic variables, delving into SDG4 -Quality Education- and SDG5 -Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment-. A quantitative multivariate methodology, cluster analysis, was used for them. Due to the novel implementation of most of these technologies, and the recent measurement of the data, the longitudinal analysis is carried out from the first year with contrasted statistical data, from 2017 to 2022. The results show that the speed of adoption of new technologies is uneven across the European Union, with countries such as Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands with Very High Digitalization, compared to Romania and Bulgaria with Very Low Digitalization. Likewise, the countries that make up the cluster of countries with the highest digitisation rates also coincide with the countries with the most equal employment conditions and the lowest ratio of working women at risk of poverty, although the gender gap is still evident in all the countries analyzed. The Women Work Risk Poverty variable has decreased the least between 2017 and 2022.