Social Impacts of Digitalisation Through the Lens of Hungarian Experts

Abstract

Nowadays, we live in the fourth industrial revolution (the so-called digital revolution), which is fundamentally reshaping industry and business as well as the economy and civil society. Within the research activities of the National Laboratory for Social Innovation project, a research plan has been drawn up taking into account the quadruple helix model. The aim of this research is to map the social impacts of digitalisation based on the perspective of Hungarian experts. The research aims to map the social impact of digitalisation, its whether the perception of the impact of digitalisation on society depends on the individual perceptions of the experts involved in the research (age, education) or organisational (sector of the organisation represented). The research seeks to answer the following research questions: Q1. How can the social impact of digitalisation be described? Q2. Do individual (age, education) or organisational (sector of the organisation represented) characteristics influence the experts’ opinion? Q3. Are there any significant relationships between experts' responses to questions on the social impact of digitalisation and, if so, how strong are they? The data analysed are the results of a qualitative and quantitative, empirical survey carried out in 2021 with experts from academia, government, business and civil society. The former was conducted in the form of focus group interviews with invited experts (n=9) and the latter, in the form of an online questionnaire survey (n=78) using descriptive statistics and relationship analysis methods (Cramer's V and Kendall's Tau). The results show that the majority of experts consider the social impact of digitalisation to be rather positive, highlighting for example more efficient problem solving. It can be shown that the development of digitalisation requires a well thought-out but not over-regulated framework. As the transfer of knowledge improves, the opportunities for those who use digital technologies increase, but so does awareness of its harmful effects. The results can guide digital policy makers in identifying key areas for intervention.