IMD World Competitiveness Ranking 2023

Figure 7

even in economies where cybercrime is adequately addressed, companies bolster their positions by under taking additional measures. Examples include Qatar, Denmark, Estonia, and the US. Yet, outliers exist, such as Israel, where a strong perception of cybersecurity does not necessarily translate into proactive, company specific measures by companies. Bulgaria and similarly, Kazakhstan are also interesting cases that need further research. Despite executives who reside in these two economies believing that cybercrime can be addressed more effectively, they appear less proactive. To contextualize these results, we delve deeper into the specific areas that executives find crucial when asserting the need for additional cybersecurity measures. Figure 8 illustrates four areas exhibiting a robust negative rela tionship with the share of executives claiming that there have not been new cybersecurity measures, depicted in the horizontal axis. The four criteria measured on the vertical axes include the enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights, the existence of a legislative frame work promoting innovation research, the readiness of companies in dealing with opportunities and threats, and the existence of a prohibitively costly framework for failure, acting as a deterrent to business emergence.

The top graphs in Figure 8 are related to the general economy. They suggest that in countries where business leaders perceive promotion of innovation (top right graph) and the enforcement of intellectual rights to innovations (top left graph), investing in additional measures to safe guard business digital integrity is considered a worth while venture. This outcome is heightened in countries where the private sector demonstrates resilience and agility by swiftly responding to emerging opportunities and threats (bottom left graph). Furthermore, in countries where the cost of failure is high, that is where fear of failure deters business activities, there is an increased likelihood of undertaking additional steps, including implementing newmeasures, to minimize the probability of a cyber compromise. In conclusion, as economies grapple with the disruptive forces of the digital age, their capacity to generate value hinges on the resilience of their cybersecurity defenses. This can be realized by acknowledging the interconnected nature of robust cybersecurity measures at the company level and the existence of a protective and proactive regulatory framework at the economy level.

34