Digital Economy and Technology Development

Innovative digital technologies—supported by humanistic societies—are required to balance our economic advancement and environmental regeneration. The well-being of our future will depend on how well we can produce technologies that can improve our climate, health, social equity, and stability.

New technologies have been used to enhance productivity, the quality of education, and the quality of life, and to promote healthy lives for everyone. For example, we are using technology to tackle global challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic-related health improvements and virtual activities. Furthermore, cities today are more sustainable in terms of providing economic resource sharing, autonomous mobility systems, zero emission industrial products, facilities for recycling waste, and organic food to the urban population to name a few. Digital technology solutions can be used to integrate circular economy principles from the design stage to the post-construction/manufacturing stage.

Furthermore, the processes of innovation diffusion reshape economic systems and cause structural changes in different economic sectors. These innovations have become the basis of the new digital infrastructure of society. The technological revolution of recent years has made it possible to transform entire systems of production, management, and governance into more effective and efficient systems in connected societies.

In this special edition, 25 papers were selected from the 3rd International Scientific Conference on Innovations in Digital Economy SPBPU-IDE 2021, which discussed theory and application regarding digital economy and technology development. The conference SPBPU IDE-2021 was organized by Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) and Universitas Indonesia and brought together experts from the academia and industry to enhance digital transformation of economic systems.