Measuring and mapping the emergence of the digital economy: a comparison of the market capitalization in selected countries

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a method to quantify the digital economy using a representative measurement approach and use it to analyze the USA, Germany, the Republic of Korea and Sweden. Design/methodology/approach: The research approach of this paper is based on a developed methodology to identify firms of the digital economy by measuring the market capitalization of selected countries in comparison over time using financial databases. Findings: Comparing the market capitalization of the digital economy, the USA lead both in absolute as well as in relative terms. The 11 firms with the largest market capitalization are all American. For Germany, the results show that policy measures should be undertaken to ameliorate competitiveness in the field. Research limitations/implications: This current measurement only includes public firms. An interesting avenue for future research would be to transfer the approach to investigate private firms. Originality/value: Previous research has focused on comparing information and communication technologies adoption and infrastructure as well as innovation hubs between countries. The authors are not aware of any paper to date which has compared market capitalization in the digital economy between countries using a representative sample. This paper offers a research approach to measure and compare the digital economy between countries. The methodology could be applied to other countries which seek to benchmark their performance and derive policy measures to be able to compete with jurisdictions leading in the digital economy.