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Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to scientifically verify the credibility (prove or disprove) the existing argument for the global technological inequality within the conflict of traditions and innovations, as well as from the perspective of social consequences of the innovative development of the economy and the basics of conflict management.

Design/methodology/approach: A review of existing sources of research literature has shown that they formed an insufficient scientific basis for determining the essence and scope of social consequences of the innovative development of the economy and the basics of conflict management in terms of global technological inequality. The method of comparative analysis of statistical data over time is used to fill the identified gap in the scientific knowledge system in this chapter. The top 10 countries of the world, which are characterized by the highest level of the innovative development of the economy, were chosen as the objects of study.

Findings: This chapter presents a review of facts determining that there are arguments for the conflict of traditions and innovations against the backdrop of global technological progress from a scientific perspective, a conflict that has social consequences for the innovative development of the economy and the basics of conflict management. Today, the protection and promotion of national interests are being increasingly determined by digitalization as the primary function of diplomatic services. For example, cybersecurity affects national security; web platforms support the economic well-being of citizens and companies; the Internet contributes to the development of healthcare, education and other essential social services, especially during the crisis caused by the COVID-19.

Originality/value: It is expected that wide introduction of high technologies in developed countries will reduce the competitive ability of currently less industrialized economies of Asia and Africa in terms of cost of labour, will increase the technological gap between them and developed countries that will diversify their economies and create more jobs. In the past, countries such as China, Mexico, Brazil and several Asian countries were climbing the income ladder, transferring labour force and capital from the relatively inefficient agricultural economy to the more efficient products and services. Today, there are fears that high technologies and Industry 4.0 will revolutionize these conventional development processes, making a thorny path even more thorny, and will lead to conflicts of traditions and innovations as a source of global technological inequality.

Purpose: The purpose of the work is to consider the integration mechanism as a source of overcoming technological inequality. Also, the authors considered the problems of using clusters, special economic zones, technology parks, public–private partnership (PPP).

Design/methodology/approach: Statistical and regression analysis are used as research methods. This work analyses the materials of a survey among Russian employees who were transferred to remote work in 2020, which allows specifying the essence of technological inequality in Russia. A classification of technologies that allow clusters to influence the reduction of the technological gap and overcoming conflicts of business interests is proposed, and the classification of types of government policies is presented.

Originality/value: It is proved that the features of the digital economy development at the present stage largely depend on the degree of technological inequalities of countries. This work fills in a gap in the literature that consists in the uncertainty of the potential of integration mechanisms in entrepreneurship regarding the contribution to the reduction of technological inequality. This work’s contribution to the literature consists in substantiating the presence of this potential on the example of clusters, special economic zones, technology parks, and PPP.