Digital transformation strategies in the European Union and the potential for institutional transfer of French experience to Uzbekistan

Abstract

The article examines the institutional architecture of digital transformation in the European Union, with a focus on France, and assesses the transferability of its instruments to Uzbekistan. The study combines comparative institutional analysis, case study, content analysis of strategies and regulations, and secondary analysis of official statistics. The evidence shows that France has nearly completed the transition to fibre infrastructure and has mobilised large-scale investment commitments for artificial intelligence, while business adoption remains structurally uneven. Uzbekistan demonstrates rapid growth in digital government and its export-oriented IT ecosystem, but faces constraints in enterprise-level statistics, regional connectivity quality, advanced skills, data interoperability, and evaluation of project effects. A selective transfer model is proposed, based on functional equivalence, regulatory proportionality, local implementation capacity, measurable performance indicators, and staged scaling. The findings contribute to the theory of institutional transfer by distinguishing the transfer of policy functions from the mechanical copying of foreign organisational forms.