Digital technology and innovation trajectories in the Mediterranean region: A casualty of or an antidote to the economic crisis? Panagiotis Kokkinakos, Ourania Markaki, Sotirios Koussouris ⇑ , John Psarras Decision Support Systems Laboratory, National Technical University of Athens, Greece article info Article history: Received 29 January 2016 Received in revised form 21 July 2016 Accepted 18 August 2016 Available online xxxx Keywords: Economic crisis Financial crisis Technology ICT Digital Indicator Innovation Mediterranean countries Europe Index of Real Costs GDP abstract Weak macroeconomic conditions mean admittedly that government spending on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is reduced and consequently that ICT-related policies are scrutinized for their necessity, efficiency and impact on growth. At the same time, such conditions bring into the spotlight and set priority to measures tar- geting the ICT sector and promoting ICT-based innovation as a means of pursuing economic recovery. The 2008 financial crisis affected severely several parts of the world and partic- ularly the Mediterranean region, where, even today, several years after the start of this eco- nomic turmoil in Europe, finding an effective response to mitigating the consequences of recession is still pertinent. Building on previous literature that recognizes ICT-based inno- vation as a crisis mitigation enabler, this paper propels discussion on the association among ICT- and innovation-oriented indicators and the economic crisis context in four Mediterranean countries, namely Spain, Greece, Italy and Cyprus. In this respect, it lever- ages a set of open and credible indicators of both technological and economic character and attempts to reflect on the effects of the crisis on ICT or conversely seen the potential of the latter to enable the affected countries to come out of the crisis. Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Since the ancient times Mediterranean countries stood as a center of innovation and science revolution of the by then known world (Finley, 1965). This path to new inventions and technical breakthroughs has been long-lasting, from the ancient ages until the early 80 0 s, as countries in the Mediterranean remained key industry players and paved the way for new findings, driven either by local innovation, or from knowledge imported from their offshore colonies that were estab- lished in other close-by or far-away continents. However, digitization and more specifically electronic services and major modern Internet based telecommunications were born elsewhere and uptake in the Mediterranean countries was quite lethargic, converting the region into a technology laggard and leaving behind the innovation leader characteristics it was car- rying for centuries, creating a clear difference between the European North and the South territories, largely due reasons deep-rooted in the post-World War II socioeconomic and political conditions established in the modern Mediterranean countries. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.08.024 0736-5853/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: pkokkinakos@epu.ntua.gr (P. Kokkinakos), omarkaki@epu.ntua.gr (O. Markaki), skous@epu.ntua.gr (S. Koussouris), john@epu.ntua.gr (J. Psarras). Telematics and Informatics xxx (2016) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Telematics and Informatics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tele Please cite this article in press as: Kokkinakos, P., et al. Digital technology and innovation trajectories in the Mediterranean region: A casu- alty of or an antidote to the economic crisis?. Telemat. Informat. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.08.024