Technical Innovations and Social Implications: Mapping Global Research Focus in AI, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, and Privacy
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
2.1. Economic Factors
2.2. Social and Institutional Factors
2.3. Other Factors
2.4. Bibliometric Studies of Technical Fields
3. Methods and Data
Exploratory Analysis and Identification of Outliers
4. Results
4.1. Predictors of Technical vs. Social Focus
4.2. Predictive Value of the Regression Models
4.3. Cluster Analysis
5. Discussion
5.1. Original Contributions of Regression Analysis
5.2. Original Contributions of Cluster Analysis
5.3. Theoretical and Practical Implications
6. Conclusions
6.1. Study Limitations
6.2. Directions for Future Study
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Topic | SCIE | SSCI | SCIE/SSCI Ratio across All Countries |
---|---|---|---|
Artificial intelligence | 95,468 | 17,111 | 5.58 |
Blockchain | 17,177 | 4234 | 4.06 |
Cybersecurity | 8404 | 2071 | 4.06 |
Privacy | 47,348 | 16,466 | 2.88 |
Variable | N (Number of Countries) | Minimum | Maximum | Mean | Std. Deviation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Artificial intelligence publications per country: SCIE/SSCI Ratio | 82 | 2.00 | 14.15 | 5.81 | 2.51 |
Blockchain publications per country: SCIE/SSCI Ratio | 68 | 1.14 | 9.00 | 3.46 | 1.67 |
Cybersecurity publications per country: SCIE/SSCI Ratio | 49 | 1.59 | 15.70 | 5.09 | 3.17 |
Privacy publications per country: SCIE/SSCI Ratio | 85 | 0.80 | 10.28 | 3.10 | 1.98 |
AHDI | 162 | 0.12 | 0.89 | 0.45 | 0.20 |
Life expectancy | 195 | 52.53 | 85.95 | 71.28 | 7.75 |
Average years of schooling | 191 | 2.11 | 14.09 | 8.99 | 3.17 |
GNI per capita | 193 | 731.79 | 146,829.70 | 20,136.39 | 21,756.09 |
Liberal democracy index | 176 | 0.01 | 0.89 | 0.39 | 0.26 |
Research spending/GDP | 150 | 0.01 | 5.56 | 0.83 | 1.02 |
Happiness | 165 | 1.86 | 7.80 | 5.43 | 1.17 |
Variable | AI Ratio | Blockchain Ratio | Cybersecurity Ratio | Privacy Ratio | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Beta | Sig. | Beta | Sig. | Beta | Sig. | Beta | Sig. | |
Life expectancy | 0.329 | 0.029 | 0.258 | 0.122 | 0.545 | 0.010 | 0.522 | 0.004 |
Average years of schooling | −0.065 | 0.640 | −0.099 | 0.557 | −0.094 | 0.630 | −0.164 | 0.304 |
GNI per capita | −0.052 | 0.740 | 0.184 | 0.294 | −0.099 | 0.622 | 0.251 | 0.150 |
Liberal democracy index | −0.551 | 0.000 | −0.524 | 0.000 | −0.361 | 0.044 | −0.524 | 0.000 |
Research spending/GDP | 0.227 | 0.069 | 0.132 | 0.352 | −0.122 | 0.459 | 0.056 | 0.680 |
Happiness | −0.410 | 0.022 | −0.424 | 0.039 | −0.443 | 0.096 | −0.329 | 0.084 |
Ratio by Topic | 1. Strong Social Focus | 2. Balanced Focus | 3. Technical Focus | 4. Mixed: AI and Cybersecurity Technical/Blockchain and Privacy Social | 5. Strong Technical Focus |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Artificial Intelligence SCIE/SSCI Ratio | 4.39 | 5.95 | 8.16 | 10.07 | 12.77 |
Blockchain SCIE/SSCI Ratio | 2.54 | 3.82 | 6.40 | 3.80 | 8.31 |
Cybersecurity SCIE/SSCI Ratio | 3.02 | 6.18 | 9.67 | 11.91 | 15.70 |
Privacy SCIE/SSCI Ratio | 1.98 | 3.87 | 8.74 | 3.89 | 7.59 |
Number of countries in each cluster | 53 | 25 | 6 | 4 | 4 |
Country | Type | Description | Country | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Argentina | 1 | Strong social focus | Thailand | 1 | Strong social focus |
Australia | 1 | Strong social focus | Uganda | 1 | Strong social focus |
Austria | 1 | Strong social focus | Ukraine | 1 | Strong social focus |
Belgium | 1 | Strong social focus | United Kingdom | 1 | Strong social focus |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | 1 | Strong social focus | United States | 1 | Strong social focus |
Botswana | 1 | Strong social focus | Zambia | 1 | Strong social focus |
Bulgaria | 1 | Strong social focus | Zimbabwe | 1 | Strong social focus |
Cameroon | 1 | Strong social focus | Bangladesh | 2 | Balanced focus |
Canada | 1 | Strong social focus | Brazil | 2 | Balanced focus |
Chile | 1 | Strong social focus | Colombia | 2 | Balanced focus |
Croatia | 1 | Strong social focus | Ethiopia | 2 | Balanced focus |
Cyprus | 1 | Strong social focus | Italy | 2 | Balanced focus |
Czech Republic | 1 | Strong social focus | Jordan | 2 | Balanced focus |
Denmark | 1 | Strong social focus | Lebanon | 2 | Balanced focus |
Ecuador | 1 | Strong social focus | Luxembourg | 2 | Balanced focus |
Estonia | 1 | Strong social focus | Malaysia | 2 | Balanced focus |
Fiji | 1 | Strong social focus | Mexico | 2 | Balanced focus |
Finland | 1 | Strong social focus | Morocco | 2 | Balanced focus |
France | 1 | Strong social focus | Poland | 2 | Balanced focus |
Germany | 1 | Strong social focus | Portugal | 2 | Balanced focus |
Ghana | 1 | Strong social focus | Qatar | 2 | Balanced focus |
Hungary | 1 | Strong social focus | Romania | 2 | Balanced focus |
Indonesia | 1 | Strong social focus | Serbia | 2 | Balanced focus |
Israel | 1 | Strong social focus | Singapore | 2 | Balanced focus |
Kenya | 1 | Strong social focus | South Korea | 2 | Balanced focus |
Lithuania | 1 | Strong social focus | Spain | 2 | Balanced focus |
Malawi | 1 | Strong social focus | Sweden | 2 | Balanced focus |
Malta | 1 | Strong social focus | Taiwan | 2 | Balanced focus |
Mozambique | 1 | Strong social focus | Tunisia | 2 | Balanced focus |
Nepal | 1 | Strong social focus | Turkey | 2 | Balanced focus |
Netherlands | 1 | Strong social focus | United Arab Emirates | 2 | Balanced focus |
New Zealand | 1 | Strong social focus | Vietnam | 2 | Balanced focus |
Nigeria | 1 | Strong social focus | China | 3 | Technical focus |
Norway | 1 | Strong social focus | Georgia | 3 | Technical focus |
Oman | 1 | Strong social focus | India | 3 | Technical focus |
Palestinian Authority | 1 | Strong social focus | Kazakhstan | 3 | Technical focus |
Peru | 1 | Strong social focus | Pakistan | 3 | Technical focus |
Philippines | 1 | Strong social focus | Saudi Arabia | 3 | Technical focus |
Republic of Ireland | 1 | Strong social focus | Greece | 4 | Mixed |
Russia | 1 | Strong social focus | Iran | 4 | Mixed |
Slovakia | 1 | Strong social focus | Kuwait | 4 | Mixed |
Slovenia | 1 | Strong social focus | Yemen | 4 | Mixed |
South Africa | 1 | Strong social focus | Algeria | 5 | Strong technical focus |
Sri Lanka | 1 | Strong social focus | Egypt | 5 | Strong technical focus |
Switzerland | 1 | Strong social focus | Iraq | 5 | Strong technical focus |
Tanzania | 1 | Strong social focus | Japan | 5 | Strong technical focus |
Cluster | AHDI—Total | Life Exp. | Avg. Years of Schooling | GNI/Capita | Liberal Democracy Index | Research Spending/GDP | Happiness |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mean | Mean | Mean | Mean | Mean | Mean | Mean | |
1. Strong social focus | 0.57 | 73.72 | 10.73 | 28,364 | 0.55 | 1.35 | 5.90 |
2. Balanced focus | 0.50 | 76.52 | 9.85 | 32,410 | 0.42 | 1.28 | 5.73 |
3. Technical focus | 0.36 | 71.59 | 9.21 | 18,906 | 0.22 | 0.68 | 5.35 |
4. Mixed: AI and cybersecurity technical/blockchain and privacy social | 0.39 | 74.10 | 8.15 | 24,059 | 0.27 | 0.81 | 5.28 |
5. Strong technical focus | 0.45 | 75.44 | 9.73 | 18,696 | 0.30 | 1.20 | 5.14 |
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Bran, E.; Rughiniș, R.; Țurcanu, D.; Nadoleanu, G. Technical Innovations and Social Implications: Mapping Global Research Focus in AI, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, and Privacy. Computers 2024, 13, 254. https://doi.org/10.3390/computers13100254
Bran E, Rughiniș R, Țurcanu D, Nadoleanu G. Technical Innovations and Social Implications: Mapping Global Research Focus in AI, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, and Privacy. Computers. 2024; 13(10):254. https://doi.org/10.3390/computers13100254
Chicago/Turabian StyleBran, Emanuela, Răzvan Rughiniș, Dinu Țurcanu, and Gheorghe Nadoleanu. 2024. "Technical Innovations and Social Implications: Mapping Global Research Focus in AI, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, and Privacy" Computers 13, no. 10: 254. https://doi.org/10.3390/computers13100254
APA StyleBran, E., Rughiniș, R., Țurcanu, D., & Nadoleanu, G. (2024). Technical Innovations and Social Implications: Mapping Global Research Focus in AI, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, and Privacy. Computers, 13(10), 254. https://doi.org/10.3390/computers13100254