From Strategy to Execution: Europe’s Companies Face Hurdles in Scaling Digital Business Models

The FACIS survey "Europe's Digital Future" ("Unlocking New Digital Business Models in Europe 2026") of 800 decision-makers in European industrial companies reveals a gap between ambition and reality when it comes to the digital future:

• 92% of all companies surveyed plan to introduce new digital business models within the next three years.
• However, practical implementationremainschallenging: 48% cite cybersecurity and data protection as barriers, 42% report excessive costs, and 36% point to regulatory and legal challenges.
• 76% of respondents consider partnerships essential, yet only 5% are currently active in or coordinating digital ecosystems.

Companies in both Germany and across Europe are ready for the digital future, but they face significant challenges when it comes to implementation. This is the key finding of the FACIS survey "Europe's Digital Future" ("Unlocking New Digital Business Models in Europe 2026"), conducted among 800 decision-makers in European small and medium-sized industrial enterprises (SMEs) by the market and opinion research institute moweb research. 92% of the companies surveyed state that they plan to launch digital business models within the next three years; in Germany, the figure is as high as 96%. According to their own assessment, 88% of companies in Europe have already developed a digitalization strategy and 80% have implemented an AI strategy.

However, concrete steps to translate these plans into practice are still lacking: foundational issues such as cybersecurity and data protection are cited by nearly half (48%) as the main obstacle, followed by high costs (42%) and regulatory and legal challenges (36%). Additional frequently mentioned barriers include a shortage of qualified professionals (31%), outdated or insufficient IT infrastructure (30%), and resistance to change within the organization (20%).

Diverging priorities for a digital Europe hinder implementation

Another key finding: cross-border digital innovation remains a challenge. Only 53% of respondents perceive Europe as a unified market for digital business models. "The willingness to adopt digital business models is there. What is holding companies back today are the lack of common standards, differing regulatory frameworks, and the complexity of cross-border digital collaboration. In other words: Europe does not have a strategy problem. Europe has an execution problem," says Andreas Weiss, Managing Director of eco - Association of the Internet Industry.

European companies have, in principle, made progress in modernizing their digital infrastructures: two-thirds of respondents (67%) rate their IT infrastructure as modern, and 60% rely on cloud-based environments.

Digital collaboration and partnerships are essential

To achieve digital growth, 76% of respondents consider partnerships essential. Yet only 5% are currently organized within or coordinating digital ecosystems.

"The willingness to collaborate in Europe is clearly evident. The next step is to make digital ecosystems operationally viable - across different providers, infrastructures, and industries," says Emma Wehrwein, FACIS Project Lead and Senior Manager Innovation & Digital Ecosystems at eco - Association of the Internet Industry. Projects such as FACIS, as part of the overarching 8ra initiative, address precisely these challenges by supporting practical approaches to trustworthy digital collaboration, scalable ecosystems, and operational cooperation across provider and national boundaries.

"The key takeaway is this: Europe's companies know where they want to go. The continuing challenge is to make digital, cross-border collaboration so simple and trustworthy that new business models can truly scale," says Andreas Weiss.

More information about the survey: https://www.facis.eu/facis-survey-unlocking-europes-digital-future/

About the survey:

The survey on Europe's digital future ("Unlocking New Digital Business Models in Europe 2026") was conducted on behalf of FACIS - a project led by eco - Association of the Internet Industry - by the market and opinion research institute moweb research. The quota-based quantitative survey was carried out in May 2026 among 800 decision-makers in small and medium-sized industrial enterprises (SMEs) in Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Sweden, and Spain.

About eco

With around 1,000 member companies, eco ([www.eco.de](https:/international.eco.de)) is the leading association of the Internet industry in Europe. Since 1995, eco has played a key role in shaping the Internet, promoting new technologies, creating appropriate framework conditions, and representing the interests of its members vis-à-vis policymakers and in international bodies. eco has offices in Cologne, Berlin, and Brussels. For 30 years, eco has stood for a high-performance, reliable, and trustworthy ecosystem of digital infrastructures and services and for an Internet with responsibility.

About FACIS

Since November 2024, eco - Association of the Internet Industry has been responsible for managing the FACIS project as part of the European cloud infrastructure initiative IPCEI-CIS/8ra. 8ra is an initiative of the EU and its Member States to build a European cloud infrastructure that enables companies to exchange data securely and collaborate seamlessly on digital services across providers and national borders. FACIS (Federation Architecture for Composed Infrastructure Services) contributes to this goal by developing practical solutions, common rulebooks, and concrete use cases. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE).