The transformation of the economy into a digital environment has become a necessary step in recent years. The consequences of the COVID pandemic have accelerated the digital transformation and the growth of the digital economy. Intensive business engagement in the digital economy requires innovative digital solutions and online means of promotion and sale. European Union (EU) countries need to create the conditions for the gradual transformation. The paper analyses business readiness for the digital economy in EU countries. It aims to compare and assess the current situation of digital readiness based on the set of selected indicators. The analysis includes a multidimensional comparison of EU countries, classification based on cluster analysis, and ranking based on factor analysis results. Results show significant differences among EU countries. Newer member countries, mostly from South-Eastern Europe, are still lagging behind the EU average in e-Commerce activities, usage of social networks, and cloud computing. Furthermore, factor analysis has been conducted to determine underlining factors describing the overall digital readiness of EU countries and rank them accordingly. As well as in the cluster analysis, factor analysis revealed that Nordic EU member countries perform very well and show the highest digital readiness.

The inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) are often seen as one of the factors increasing the economic growth of the country. Therefore, considerable attention is paid to examining of its determinants, of which corporate taxes is often seen as one. However, there is mixed evidence of the relationship between corporate taxes and FDI in the empirical literature. The main aim of our paper is to identify the key determinants of FDI in EU countries based on panel data regression models. Moreover, we focus our attention particularly on effective and statutory corporate tax rates and their impact on FDI. On the one hand, our results suggest that there is no statistically significant effect of corporate taxes on FDI. On the other hand, we find a significant effect of labour costs, openness of the economy, firing costs, GDP per capita and public debt in the country. There is also some evidence of a negative impact of the financial and economic crisis on FDI inflows in the EU

The paper deals with the potential relationship between higher education and entrepreneurial activities. Universities and other higher education institutions could be seen as boosting entrepreneurship in the region. University graduates could be more often involved in starting up a new business and the university itself could commercialize their innovations by creating academic spin-off companies. The paper aims to examine whether university graduates are better placed for establishing a successful business compared to less educated people. Based on the data for 40 EU and non-EU countries, retrieved from a Eurobarometer survey, we conducted probit and IV probit regressions. These have tested the assumed relationship between higher education and entrepreneurial activities. Our results strongly suggest that higher education can often be very beneficial for starting up a new business and this seems to be one of the factors determining the success of new business. Furthermore, those respondents who attended courses related to entrepreneurship appear to be more active in starting-up a business and this seems to be also positively correlated with the company's future success. Interestingly, university graduates from Brazil, Portugal and India in particular, tend to appreciate the role that their universities have played in acquiring the skills to enable them to run a business.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.29.2.19069