Frontiers and Trends of Sustainable Development in the Global Digital Economy

• Anna Weber

  Author

The rise of the digital economy has reshaped the trajectory of global economic development, introducing unprecedented opportunities for the advancement of sustainable development goals. Yet the proliferation of digital technologies brings with it a series of environmental, social, and governance dilemmas that demand systematic scholarly inquiry. This paper synthesizes the frontiers and trends of sustainable development in the global digital economy by mapping the field's evolutionary phases, identifying leading research themes, evaluating cross-country collaboration patterns, and projecting future research directions. Drawing on a bibliometric foundation covering more than two decades of scholarship, we identify five distinct developmental phases (initial stability, gradual growth, diversification, technological diversification and deep application, and post-pandemic recovery and innovation) and trace the emergence of "digital economy," "digital transformation," and "sustainable development" as the field's core thematic clusters. Environmental governance, green innovation, circular business models, smart cities, blockchain–AI–IoT-enabled supply chains, and equitable digital access emerge as the dominant frontiers. The analysis suggests that the next research wave will be defined by the integration of digital ecosystems with green initiatives and by the institutionalization of frameworks that align digital expansion with global sustainability goals.

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