Digitalizace jako předpoklad regionální konkurenceschopnosti? Analýza disparit na příkladu ČR

The paper focuses on regional competitiveness in relation to the level of digitization putted by the Regional Digitization Index (RDI), which was created by the authors of this paper. This index is inspired by the internationally recognized Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), which compares the level of the digital economy of the EU member states. However, it does not enable to identify interregional disparities in the process of the territory digitization. The aim of the paper is to compare regional competitiveness, determined by the Regional Competitiveness Index (RCI), and the level of digitization expressed by the Regional Digitization Index. The research question is whether a higher RDI value implies a higher RCI level. The emphasis is given especially on regions defined according to the EUROSTAT methodology (2018) as predominantly rural, i.e., Plzeňský, Jihočeský, Vysočina and Pardubický regions. The results, except for the Capital City of Prague, do not confirm this implication, especially if we focus on predominantly rural regions. According to the RCI, Plzeňský and Vysočina regions belong to the regions with high dynamics of development and Pardubický and Jihočeský regions to the regions with average dynamics of development. According to the RDI, Pardubický, Vysočina and Jihočeský regions rank among regions with lower dynamics of digital development and the Plzeňský region falls into the "worst" group of regions with problematic development of digitization.