Having a social media presence is not the same as building a genuine digital strategy.
A new study of the Valencian economy has placed a precise figure on a long-held intuition: companies that embrace digital transformation in depth — not merely in appearance — earn profitability nearly two and a half times greater than those that do not. The research, presented this week by the Valencian Institute for Economic Research, reveals a region that has outpaced most of Europe yet remains caught between ambition and execution, leading Spain's second tier while Madrid and Barcelona compete at the continent's frontier. The deeper lesson is not about technology itself, but about the human and organizational will required to move from a digital façade to a genuinely digital identity.
- The gap is stark and measurable: digitalized Valencian firms earn 8% profitability versus 5.4% for offline peers, and those with full tech integration — AI, cloud, cybersecurity — reach 13%, nearly 2.5 times the analog baseline.
- Beneath the headline numbers lies a troubling paradox: most companies have built a digital storefront while neglecting the structural interior, with only 1.9% adopting advanced cybersecurity and just 14.1% deploying AI or data analytics.
- The region's most urgent constraint is human, not technological — skilled digital professionals are leaving for Madrid, Catalonia, and European cities offering higher salaries, draining the talent pipeline that deeper transformation requires.
- Microenterprises are being left behind at scale, with only 35.6% maintaining even a basic web presence, while advanced digitalization clusters in metropolitan Valencia, the Alicante-Elche corridor, and select industrial coastal zones.
- Business leaders from Octopus Energy, Grupo Mazo, and Cecotec offered a common lesson at the study's presentation: the companies winning the digital race are not purchasing technology — they are restructuring their entire organizations around it.
Un nuevo estudio del Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas ha cuantificado lo que muchas empresas intuían: la digitalización profunda es rentable. Las empresas valencianas con presencia digital activa alcanzan una rentabilidad del 8%, frente al 5,4% de las que operan de forma analógica. Pero las que han integrado personal tecnológico especializado, sistemas avanzados de gestión e infraestructura de ciberseguridad llegan al 13%, casi dos veces y media más que sus competidoras tradicionales. El estudio, presentado para la Fundación Mediterranean LAB, combina estadísticas oficiales, web scraping e inteligencia artificial para construir un índice propio de digitalización empresarial.
Los resultados sitúan a la Comunitat Valenciana 15,8 puntos por encima de la media europea, un dato que pierde brillo al compararlo con el contexto nacional: la región queda cuatro puntos por debajo de la media española y a considerable distancia de Madrid y Barcelona. Como señalaron los propios investigadores, Valencia lidera el segundo nivel mientras las dos grandes capitales compiten con lo mejor de Europa.
La paradoja central del informe es que las empresas valencianas han adoptado la cara visible de lo digital — webs, redes sociales, canales de atención al cliente — pero evitan el trabajo interno más exigente. Solo el 14,1% de las empresas con presencia digital ha incorporado herramientas avanzadas como inteligencia artificial, servicios en la nube o analítica de datos. La ciberseguridad avanzada apenas ha llegado al 1,9% del tejido empresarial. Tener presencia en redes sociales, advierten los investigadores, no equivale a tener una estrategia digital.
El talento tecnológico emerge como el cuello de botella más crítico. Los profesionales especializados en tecnología emigran hacia Madrid, Cataluña y otras ciudades europeas atraídos por mejores salarios y condiciones laborales. Los investigadores subrayan que el liderazgo directivo es determinante: la digitalización debe tratarse como prioridad estratégica, no como un trámite.
El tamaño y la geografía marcan las diferencias más profundas. El 90,3% de las grandes empresas tiene página web; entre las microempresas, ese porcentaje cae al 35,6%. La digitalización más avanzada se concentra en el área metropolitana de Valencia, el corredor Alicante-Elche y algunos municipios industriales y turísticos de la costa. En la presentación del estudio, directivos de Octopus Energy, Grupo Mazo y Cecotec ilustraron con sus propias trayectorias la misma conclusión: las empresas que ganan la carrera digital no se limitan a comprar tecnología — se reorganizan en torno a ella.
A new study on the Valencian economy has put numbers to something companies have long suspected: going digital pays. Firms in the region with an active digital presence are pulling in profits at a rate of 8 percent, compared to just 5.4 percent for those still operating offline. But the real money sits with companies that have gone all the way—those that have woven together specialized tech staff, advanced management systems, and serious cybersecurity infrastructure. Those outfits are hitting 13 percent profitability, nearly two and a half times better than their analog competitors.
The research, conducted by the Valencian Institute for Economic Research and presented this week for the Mediterranean LAB Foundation, offers a portrait of a region that has moved faster than most of Europe but remains stuck in the middle of Spain's digital hierarchy. Using official statistics, web scraping, and artificial intelligence analysis, the institute created a custom index that places Valencia 15.8 points ahead of the European Union average in business digitalization. That sounds impressive until you look at the fine print: the region sits four points below the Spanish average and trails significantly behind Madrid and Barcelona, the country's two dominant tech hubs. As one of the study's researchers put it, Valencia is leading the second tier, while Madrid and Barcelona compete with Europe's best.
The paradox at the heart of the findings is that Valencian companies have embraced the visible parts of digital life—websites, social media, customer-facing channels—while dragging their feet on the harder internal work. Only 14.1 percent of digitally present firms have adopted advanced management tools like artificial intelligence, cloud services, or data analytics. Advanced cybersecurity solutions have penetrated just 1.9 percent of companies. And only 15.2 percent have hired specialized tech staff in the past decade. The researchers see this as a fundamental mismatch: having a social media presence is not the same as building a genuine digital strategy.
The shortage of tech talent emerges as the region's most pressing constraint. Valencia has plenty of people who can use the internet and navigate digital tools, but it struggles to retain specialists in information technology. The problem is straightforward: digital professionals are leaving for Madrid, Catalonia, and other European cities where salaries and working conditions are more attractive. The researchers argue that leadership matters here too—executives need to treat digitalization as a strategic priority, not a checkbox, and understand that it requires both investment and the right people.
Size and geography tell much of the story of who is and who is not going digital. Large companies have websites at a rate of 90.3 percent; among microenterprises, that figure drops to 35.6 percent. Industrial sectors like chemicals, pharmaceuticals, machinery, and metals have embraced digital tools at high rates, while construction, hospitality, real estate, and agriculture lag. The most sophisticated digitalization—the kind tied to management systems, cybersecurity, and tech hiring—clusters in the Valencia metropolitan area, the Alicante-Elche corridor, and a handful of coastal industrial and tourism towns.
During the presentation, business leaders from various sectors reinforced the link between digital transformation and both profitability and customer experience. The CEO of Octopus Energy Spain noted that the company is hiring graduates from vocational tech programs and finding them surprisingly valuable. The head of IT at Grupo Mazo described a decade-long transformation built on data integration, enterprise resource planning systems, and artificial intelligence to optimize operations and forecast demand. Cecotec's general director explained that the company created a separate entity focused on developing artificial intelligence solutions across the entire group, improving efficiency in human resources, marketing, and supply chain management while accelerating product development in an increasingly competitive market. These examples suggest that the companies winning the digital race are not simply buying technology—they are reorganizing themselves around it.
Citas Notables
Digitalization is not merely a technological matter; it is a strategic lever for improving competitiveness, productivity, and profitability.— Héctor Dominguis, president of Mediterranean LAB Foundation
Digital professionals are leaving because Madrid, Catalonia, and other European regions offer higher salaries and more attractive conditions.— Juan Fernández de Guevara, researcher at the Valencian Institute for Economic Research
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does profitability jump so dramatically when companies add cybersecurity and AI? Is it just that those companies are already more sophisticated?
Partly, yes—but the study suggests something more. When you integrate those systems, you're not just adding tools. You're reorganizing how the company actually works. You get better data, faster decisions, fewer operational failures. The companies doing this are fundamentally different organizations.
The study says Valencia leads the second tier. What does that actually mean for a company trying to compete?
It means you can build a successful business here, but you're not at the frontier. You have access to decent digital infrastructure and some talent, but if you're competing against a Madrid-based firm with deeper tech resources and higher salaries to attract specialists, you're fighting uphill.
Why is cybersecurity adoption so low—1.9 percent? Are companies not worried about being hacked?
They're probably not thinking about it strategically. Most companies in Valencia have focused on getting visible online—a website, social media. Cybersecurity feels like an expense, not a revenue driver. But as the study shows, the companies that do integrate it see much higher profits. They're protecting what they've built.
The talent drain seems like the real problem. How do you fix that?
You can't just tell people to stay. You need higher salaries, better working conditions, and a sense that there's a real tech ecosystem here. Right now, ambitious tech workers see Madrid or Barcelona as the place to be. Valencia needs to build something that makes them want to stay.
What about those microenterprises with only 35.6 percent digital presence? Are they doomed?
Not necessarily. But they're at a disadvantage. A small construction company or restaurant without a digital strategy is competing with one that has one. The gap will only widen unless they invest. The question is whether they have the capital and knowledge to do it.
Does the study suggest what comes next for Valencia?
It points to a choice. Either the region doubles down on attracting and retaining tech talent and building advanced digital capabilities, or it stays in the middle tier. The companies that are winning—Octopus Energy, Grupo Mazo, Cecotec—are treating digitalization as a complete organizational transformation, not a side project. That's the model that works.