Community Readiness Towards Digitalization: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, the readiness of communities to embrace and adapt to digitalization is of paramount importance. Despite the growing significance of digitalization, there is a noticeable dearth of comprehensive evaluations encompassing the diverse facets of community readiness. Variations in digital access, technological literacy, and policy frameworks across communities create disparities that require in-depth examination and strategic interventions. This systematic review seeks to comprehensively analyze the extent of community readiness towards digitalization, recognizing its crucial part in forming our society's socioeconomic fabric. Moreover, this review addresses this knowledge gap by thoroughly assessing community readiness towards digitalization, offering valuable insights for academia, policymakers, and community stakeholders. This systematic review adheres to the PRISMA technique, ensuring a rigorous and transparent approach to data synthesis. A comprehensive search was conducted across reputable databases, including SCOPUS and Web of Science (WoS), employing advanced search strategies to identify pertinent studies on community readiness towards digitalization. A comprehensive examination (n=28) of pertinent studies reveals three prominent themes in community readiness toward digitalization. These themes encompass the domains of (1) Digital Transformation (DX) in business and economy, (2) digital health and healthcare initiatives, and (3) digitalization in education and learning. The synthesis of these themes underscores the evolving landscape of digitalization and calls for targeted interventions to bolster digital readiness across these critical sectors.