Digital Technologies, Innovation, and Skills: Evolving Pathways and Challenges

Abstract

To enhance comprehension of the intricate and dialectical interrelations among digital technologies, innovation, and skills, it is imperative to deepen our knowledge of the coevolutionary dynamics involving the pathways of interconnected digital technologies, organizational innovation routines, and the development of skills. This becomes essential as organizations amalgamate and modify digital technologies, necessitating new competencies to foster innovation, assimilate learning, and adjust to the evolving digital landscapes, while simultaneously, digital technologies alter the codification of knowledge essential for productive and innovative endeavors. Furthermore, the coevolution of digital technologies, innovation, and skills necessitates and is propelled by a reorganization of productive and innovative processes both internally within organizations and externally among them. This phenomenon is evident across all economic sectors, from agriculture to services. Drawing from empirical findings regarding historical technologies in the innovation discourse, it is proposed that a novel set of stylized facts is required to more accurately delineate the principal future trajectories of digital technologies, encompassing their adoption, utilization, and recombination within organizations, thereby enriching our understanding of their implications on productivity, employment, and inequality. The articles in this special issue aim to augment our comprehension of the mutual dependencies among digital technologies, innovation, and skills.