2026· International journal of research and scientific innovation· 0 citations
TL;DR
The paper contributes a Digital Leapfrogging Readiness framework organised around four interdependent conditions — infrastructural, institutional, capability and content conditions — and derives five strategic imperatives for firms competing in these markets.
Abstract
The rise of emerging markets in the digital age represents a structural reordering of the global economic landscape rather than a peripheral catching-up story. This paper examines the rapid digital transformation under way in these markets and analyses how technological advances — mobile internet, financial technology, e-commerce and multi-sided digital platforms — have simultaneously empowered firms and consumers. Drawing on an integrative review of scholarly literature and a synthesis of secondary evidence from the World Bank Global Findex, the GSMA, UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and national payment authorities, the paper argues that emerging economies are not merely adopting technologies developed elsewhere but are generating institutionally distinctive models of digital growth. Four drivers are identified: mobile-first connectivity, the mobile money and fintech revolution, platform-mediated commerce, and state-sponsored digital public infrastructure. Comparative evidence from India, Kenya, Brazil, Indonesia and Nigeria demonstrates that leapfrogging is real but conditional: it occurs where affordable connectivity, interoperable payment rails and permissive-yet-supervised regulation coincide. The paper also documents the constraints on this transformation. Although 96 per cent of the world’s population lives within mobile broadband coverage, some 3.1 billion people who could connect do not, producing a usage gap driven by device cost, digital literacy, gender norms and locally irrelevant content. Data protection regimes remain uneven, platform concentration raises questions about where digital value is captured, and the emerging artificial intelligence divide threatens to reproduce old asymmetries in a new form. The paper contributes a Digital Leapfrogging Readiness framework organised around four interdependent conditions — infrastructural, institutional, capability and content conditions — and derives five strategic imperatives for firms competing in these markets. It concludes that the developmental promise of emerging-market digitalisation depends less on the pace of technology adoption than on the quality of the governance arrangements built around it.
Background: The digital revolution has fundamentally reshaped the global economic landscape, giving rise to dominant technology platforms such as Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple, and Microsoft. These entities function as digital gatekeepers across interconnected ecosystems encompassing search, social media, e-commerce, cloud computing, and mobile applications. Their scale and control over data flows have created new forms of market power that challenge conventional antitrust paradigms. Traditional competition law, developed in the industrial economy, struggles to address the dynamics of multi-sided markets, network effects, and data-driven dominance that characterise the digital era. This research seeks to analyse how the European Union and the United States have responded to these challenges and to draw insights for Arab jurisdictions seeking to craft context-sensitive regulatory models.
Method: The study employs a doctrinal and comparative legal analysis, supplemented by policy evaluation. It examines legislative frameworks such as the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA), as well as US antitrust laws, the Sherman Act, Clayton Act, and FTC Act. Landmark enforcement cases, including Google Shopping, United States v. Google LLC, FTC v. Meta Platforms, and FTC v. Amazon, are analysed to illustrate practical applications of these frameworks. Comparative analysis is used to assess how ex-ante and ex-post regulatory philosophies shape enforcement outcomes. For Arab jurisdictions (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE), the study incorporates institutional and policy analysis to evaluate capacity constraints and regional coordination mechanisms.
Results and Conclusions: Findings reveal fundamental contrasts between the EU and US approaches. The EU’s ex-ante regime ensures speed, predictability, and structural intervention but may risk overreach and incentivise innovation. The US ex-post approach provides analytical rigour and judicial safeguards but often lags the pace of digital market evolution. For Arab jurisdictions, key challenges include limited enforcement capacity, dependence on foreign platforms, and fragmented regional governance. The study proposes a hybrid regulatory framework that integrates proactive ex-ante rules, inspired by the DMA, with flexible ex-post enforcement tailored to local conditions. Regional harmonisation through the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Arab League is emphasised as essential for cross-border effectiveness. The research concludes that balancing market contestability, innovation, and regional integration requires capacity-sensitive regulation that merges proactive oversight with evidence-based enforcement.
Najlaa Flayyih· Access to Justice in Eastern...· 0 citations
The rapid and pervasive digital transformation of the global economy has fundamentally reshaped markets, presenting unprecedented challenges to traditional antitrust principles and competition law. This paper examines the evolution of competition policy in response to the rise of dominant digital platforms and data-driven business models. It analyzes the inherent characteristics of digital markets, such as multi-sided platforms, strong network effects, the critical role of data, and algorithmic pricing, that strain conventional antitrust frameworks. The research provides a comparative examination of emerging regulatory responses, with a primary focus on the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), the United Kingdom’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Act, and the ongoing enforcement-led approach in the United States. Key research uncovers an international shift towards more proactive, ex-ante regulation to supplement traditional ex-post enforcement. However, significant jurisdictional divergences remain. The paper considers emerging challenges, including generative AI, killer acquisitions, and ensuring data portability and interoperability. It concludes by discussing the effectiveness of current strategies, the inherent balancing acts between supporting innovation and regulating market power, and the vital need for international coordination to ensure a competitive and fair digital ecosystem. This research adds to the academic and policy discourse by synthesizing the current state of digital antitrust. It identifies key trends and outlines a prospective perspective on the future of competition law in a digital world.
Received: 12 March 2026 │ Accepted: 22 June 2026 │ Published: 23 July 2026
In the digital economy, data serves as a novel factor and a principal catalyst for production and distribution processes, while digital platforms represent a new organizational structure that links many users through network effects, fostering innovation and change in established sectors. Data and digital platforms are fundamental components of digital commerce and are thus critical factors in the development of trade policy. One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the global environment in the 21st century is the geopolitics of digital protectionism, which is connected with the drive to achieve technical sovereignty. As significant digital powers, India, the United States of America, and China each approach this nexus with their own unique tactics, which are motivated by the economic, security, and political imperatives related to their own countries. The worldwide internet ecosystem is also experiencing a significant digital revolution, characterized by a rapid transition towards digital protectionism and the desire for technology sovereignty. The increasing protectionism in trade, the fragmentation of trade blocs, and geopolitical tensions are inducing disruptions and uncertainty in global supply chains. In the meantime, these transformations generate profitable opportunities for some trades and enterprises to enhance the supply chains, explore new markets, and embrace data localization. The traditional economic models are inadequately considering the impacts of abrupt policy alterations, significantly with the tariffs and capital movements. As the global economic landscape grows increasingly unstable, it is essential to understand cross-border economic dynamics in the digital era within such critical geopolitical situation. This research paper sets the objective to examine the intricate geopolitical issue, emphasizing the unique yet interrelated strategies of India, the United States, and China. Inspired by national security, economic competitiveness, and ideological dominance, these nations are progressively enacting laws that emphasize domestic digital priorities. Digital protectionism, characterized by data localization, export limits, and limitations on foreign digital services which operates not just only as a trade barrier but also as a strategic instrument for attaining greater technical free will.
Priyanka Sinha· International Journal For Mu...· 0 citations
The authors examine the pivotal roles of individuals and collectives, alongside their embedded socio-economic and technical arrangements, to show the multifaceted dimensions of the rapid proliferation of platforms, burgeoning platform memberships, and the ensuing multidimensional social exchanges in India.
Jillet Sarah Sam, Shriram Venkatraman, Rajorshi Ray· 0 citations
Against the backdrop of the circular economy and digital acceleration, luxury brands face the imperative to reconcile digital growth with secondary market dynamics. In today's world, where digital technologies are widely used, and the idea of the circular economy is becoming more mainstream, luxury brands are dealing with two big problems: they need to update their marketing strategies and at the same time, deal with the secondary market. Using the example of Burberry, this paper investigates in a qualitative way what measures luxury brands can take to jointly develop with the second-hand market by means of strategic modifications in the context of digital transformation. The analysis of the data reveals that brand collaborations and limited-edition marketing efforts are effective avenues in boosting brand awareness through digital media. These include the dilution of core brand heritage through overexposure, channel conflicts arising from unregulated resale price erosion, and a trust crisis fueled by authentication deficits. Consequently, this paper proposes an integrated management framework encompassing blockchain-enabled authentication, selective collaborative curation, and a closed-loop product lifecycle strategy. This study provides actionable insights for luxury managers seeking to harmonize digital innovation with sustainable brand value retention.
Haojun Wei· Advances in Economics, Manag...· 0 citations
The foreign direct investment environment has experienced the structural change in the international environment which is instigated by the burgeoning growth of the digital economy. This article is a review of how the digitalization is altering the trend of FDI, its impact on the host country, and policy frameworks of not only advanced economies but also emerging economies. We are reporting on three observable trends based on the analysis of data on the 72 countries between the years 2005 and 2024 (i) strong shift to intangible-asset-intensive FDI software, cloud infrastructure, e-commerce and fintech (ii) the dislocation of the investment activity to the more conventional determinants of location (i.e., labour cost and physical infrastructure) (iii) growing digital FDI absorption capacity between the digitally advanced and digitally more backward economies. We argue that these trends necessitate a radicalization of the FDI theory and policy due to the inapplicability of the traditional tools of investment promotion, regulation and impact measurement, to a mobile, light-footprint and complex form of capital in the organization structure. We propose a Digital Investment Readiness Index (DIRI) and show that it has an empirical predictive power of digital FDI attractiveness across the sample.
A. B. Babu, Prof.R.Sivarama Prasad· EPRA International Journal o...· 0 citations