**2.2. Digitization**

The rapid development in communication technology affects many areas of life. Job profiles are changing, the workplace itself is changing, and it is becoming more and more mobile. Everything that can be automated can be digitalized. Downes [1] progressively states that knowledge is no longer bound to people but is distributed in the Internet and accessible for everybody. YouTube tutorials explain almost everything imaginable. However, not only in business, but also in private life, the way we communicate, share, and live is massively influenced by online communication via smart devices such as smart phones, tablets, smart watches, and data glasses. The penetration of smart phones in Western Europe stands at "around 70 percent and will continue to grow to around 85 percent by 2022" [2]. We have constant access to the Internet with mobile phones and even free WiFi in many places. There are even multiple phone contracts per person, as the number of mobile subscriptions in Western Europe now surpasses the number of citizens [2]. The digital data web is like a constant enhancing layer over the analogue world.

Digitization is a megatrend that affects everything from private life and the individual workplace to production processes (*Industry 4.0*) and complete supply chains (*digital SCM*<sup>1</sup> ). Consequently, building up digital competences in the future workforce (*digital literacy*) will be a key factor for safeguarding the employability of future employees. The current Global Industry 4.0 Survey shows that the biggest challenges regarding digitization are internal ones such as culture, organization, leadership, and skills rather than external issues such as infrastructure, intellectual property protection, data security, or privacy concerns [3]. The highest scoring item (50%), regarding the question of where the biggest challenges for building digital operations capabilities were, was the lack of digital culture and training [3]. The study therefore suggests focusing on people and culture to drive transformation (compare Section **4.2** of this article).

Digital technology enables collaborative working independent of time and location, i.e. people connect and meet in chats or web conferences wherever and whenever they want and need. Communication nowadays is not in need of fixed links—like the fixed link across the Baltic Sea—anymore. However, the exchange of commodities requires both physical connection and professional intercultural communication alike.

That leads to the conclusion that there is a mutual reinforcing effect of spatial development by the fixed Fehmarn-Belt link and the digitization of many areas of life. The latter explicitly has a pacemaker function, because it alone has the capability of changes for the region—even if there were no tunnel.
