This book explores how digitalization and digital technologies influence markets, firms, financial institutions and organizations. Drawing on examples from Canada, Poland, France, Albania, Africa and Turkey this book takes a truly international perspective. It explores the technical aspects of digitalization, with chapters examining topics like how digitization creates value in a small company, how digital-driven business drives innovation, how import-exporting firms can increase productivity within the digital economy and how financial systems and institutions evolve due to new technologies. However, the book goes beyond this and, by adopting a holistic view, examines the social impact of digitalization, with the authors discussing how trade unions and employers present Industry 4.0 to employees and the general public. This book will be of interest to anyone studying digital innovation, digital management, digital strategy, Fin Tech, firm management, and Industry 4.0.

Chapter 1 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Milena Ratajczak-Mrozek is an Associate Professor at Poznan University of Economics and Business, Poland. Her main areas of research include companies' relationships and cooperation in an international setting as well as performance in the global market. She has published and served as the guest editor of special issue in Industrial Marketing Management and Journal of Business Research. 

Pawel Marszalek is an Associate Professor at Poznan University of Economics and Business, Poland. His main areas of research include theory of money and monetary policy, financial systems, financialization and history of economic thought. He has published in Physica A. Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, and Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy.