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Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to determine the impact of technological inequalities on the way of building a socially oriented market digital economy. Also, it considers the problems of social entrepreneurship: the natural essence, as well as the sources and forms of manifestation of conflicts. The main models of social entrepreneurship are identified, as well as the causes of conflicts.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Statistical and regression analyses are used as research methods.

Originality/Value: It is proved that the development features of the digital economy at the present stage largely depend on the degree of technological inequalities of countries.

This study aims to analyse the impact of digital divide (DD) on income inequality in sub-Saharan Africa over the period 2004–2016.

In applying a finite mixture model (FMM) to a sample of 35 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, this study posits that DD affects income inequality differently.

The findings show that the effect of DD on income inequality varies across two distinct groups of countries, which differ according to their level of globalization. In addition, the study shows that most globalized countries are more inclined to be in the group where the effect of DD on income inequality is negative. The results are consistent with several robustness checks, including alternative measures of income inequality and additional control variables.

This study complements that extant literature by assessing linkages among the DD, globalization and income inequality in sub-Saharan African countries contingent on cross-country heterogeneity.

Telemedicine has been advancing for decades and is more indispensable than ever in this unprecedented time of the COVID-19 pandemic. As shown, eHealth appears to be effective for routine management of chronic conditions that require extensive and repeated interactions with healthcare professionals, as well as the monitoring of symptoms and diagnostics. Yet much needs to be done to alleviate digital inequalities that stand in the way of making the benefits of eHealth accessible to all. The purpose of this paper is to explore the recent shift in healthcare delivery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic towards telemedicine in healthcare delivery and show how this rapid shift is leaving behind those without digital resources and exacerbating inequalities along many axes.

Because the digitally disadvantaged are less likely to use eHealth services, they bear greater risks during the pandemic to meet ongoing medical care needs. This holds true for both medical conditions necessitating lifelong care and conditions of particular urgency such as pregnancy. For this reason, the authors examine two case studies that exemplify the implications of differential access to eHealth: the case of chronic care diseases such as diabetes requiring ongoing care and the case of time-sensitive health conditions such as pregnancy that may be compromised by gaps in continuous care.

Not only are the digitally disadvantaged more likely to belong to populations experiencing greater risk – including age and economic class – but they are less likely to use eHealth services and thereby bear greater risks during the pandemic to meet ongoing medical care needs during the pandemic.

At the time of writing, almost 20% of Americans have been unable to obtain medical prescriptions or needed medical care unrelated to the virus. In light of the potential of telemedicine, this does not need to be the case. These social inequalities take on particular significance in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In light of the COVID-19 virus, ongoing medical care requires exposure to risks that can be successfully managed by digital communications and eHealth advances. However, the benefits of eHealth are far less likely to accrue to the digitally disadvantaged.

This study aims to examine the long-term effects of an Israeli digital literacy government program for disadvantaged populations, as they are perceived by participants of the program one year after completing the course.

Participants in the program were interviewed about the effects of participating in the program, their experiences and satisfaction, in retrospect, a year after they completed the program.

The main reasons for joining the program included cognitive motivations, mainly interest to become familiar with internet applications, followed by employment aspiration. Positive benefits from participation included accumulated knowledge, confidence in using technology, empowerment and enhanced sense of self-efficacy. Interviewees also reported that as they could not practice or communicate with instructors once they completed the program, a significant portion of the accumulated gains faded.

Social and practical implications: Digital technologies constitute key infrastructure to facilitate public participation, as well as for gaining social, political and economic capital. Therefore, there is a significant social value in reducing digital inequality by increasing digital literacy of disadvantaged populations, i.e. citizens with low socioeconomic status and low digital literacy. This study sheds light on the benefits gained from such programs, as perceived by past participants.

While previous studies evaluating digital literacy programs focus on specific technical improvements and short-term gains, this study investigates the long-term effects and shortcomings of the program as perceived by participants.

The purpose of this research is to study what factors influence European citizens in their interaction with government in the EU regions. It analyses the differences across European regions, taking account of each region’s degree of economic development and incorporating different spatially tailored approaches into the analysis.

A logistic regression analysis was used to establish whether the profiles of e-Government users differ according to the development tier they live in and other explanatory variables: socio-demographic, digital skills and type of internet connection.

This research identifies regional inequalities in EU citizens’ digital behaviour with public administration. This statistical study of European regions allows to better apprehend the profile of the EU’s e-citizens and offers conclusions to explain citizens’ behaviour, highlighting the influence of several variables.

Given the lack of pan-European e-government studies at a regional level, this article provides a comparative analysis for the European Union and gives insights into the behaviour of European e-citizens, highlighting the presence of digital inequalities in Europe depending on the region where citizens reside.

The objective of this study is to present evidence regarding how young people, who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) in South Africa, lack literacy skills and access to enabling resources to actively search and navigate information services systems that are primarily web-based. Information Poverty Theory is adopted to better understand the technological and social strata challenges experienced by young NEET people.

The study used semi-structured interviews for collecting data over two months in 2018, employing snowball sampling with 24 key participants, representing a diversity of educational backgrounds and previous experience of economic participation.

The findings of this study suggest that most interviewed young people, who are NEET, lack advanced information literacy and digital skills to access information services. The results also indicate that access to information services that are primed for online information is a challenge for most of these NEET young people residing in underserviced communities. The high cost of an Internet connection means that the Internet is out of reach for most low-income households. In communities that are underserviced with no adequate information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, people residing in such areas are subjected to living in circumstances where there is poverty and thus a lack of access to online information.

This paper reports on data collected in 2018 using intense interviews, while acknowledging limitations in terms of the sample size. Hence, it is not fully representative of the whole population of young people, who are NEET, residing in the Gauteng Province of South Africa.

The findings illustrate the need for further collaboration among relevant stakeholders to strengthen existing programmes and for stronger partnerships. The arguments presented herein enhance knowledge and understanding concerning the digital literacy skills divide that exists among young people who are NEET. It includes a discussion to contribute to policy development.

This study focuses on challenges young people who are NEET experience when looking for work and developmental opportunities. This qualitative study adopts Information Poverty Theory and uses prior studies to link the undertaken survey and research. It is expected that this study may serve as a pilot for future studies and may also contribute to the ongoing discussions around the use of ICTs on their use and access, especially the effect on young people when searching for information related to jobs and other developmental opportunities using online services.

Purpose: The purpose of the work is to consider the integration mechanism as a source of overcoming technological inequality. Also, the authors considered the problems of using clusters, special economic zones, technology parks, public–private partnership (PPP).

Design/methodology/approach: Statistical and regression analysis are used as research methods. This work analyses the materials of a survey among Russian employees who were transferred to remote work in 2020, which allows specifying the essence of technological inequality in Russia. A classification of technologies that allow clusters to influence the reduction of the technological gap and overcoming conflicts of business interests is proposed, and the classification of types of government policies is presented.

Originality/value: It is proved that the features of the digital economy development at the present stage largely depend on the degree of technological inequalities of countries. This work fills in a gap in the literature that consists in the uncertainty of the potential of integration mechanisms in entrepreneurship regarding the contribution to the reduction of technological inequality. This work’s contribution to the literature consists in substantiating the presence of this potential on the example of clusters, special economic zones, technology parks, and PPP.