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constitutes a methodological result of the study- a replicable blueprint for future
empirical validation.
Table 4. Hypothetical evaluation plan: treatment vs control group

Evaluation Treatment Group (HCDAF) Control Group (Traditional
Component HR)

Sample Size 250 mid-sized enterprises 250 mid-sized enterprises
Intervention Full HCDAF implementation Existing HR and training
across all 3 modules paradigms are maintained

Study Duration Longitudinal, 1-month quasi- Same 1-month observation
experimental period window
Primary Metrics Corporate Digital Readiness Same metrics measured to
Score (DESI-adapted); enable direct comparison
employee retention rates; rate
of talent agglomeration

Secondary Metrics Frequency of internal Same -to gauge reskilling
promotions vs external hiring pipeline success

Expected Outcome Higher digital readiness, Baseline figures for
retention, and internal mobility comparative benchmarking
Source: Authors' proposed evaluation design.
Note: DESI = Digital Economy and Society Index. The Corporate Digital Readiness
Score is adapted from DESI principles for organisational-level application. Treatment and
control group assignments are random; all enterprises are drawn from diverse sectors to
ensure cross-industry generalisability.
This pilot study design provides a replicable blueprint for future empirical validation,
ensuring that the HCDAF’s theoretical underpinnings are rigorously tested against real-
world outcomes. The findings from this pilot will offer concrete evidence of the
framework’s applicability and inform further refinements.
5. Discussion
5.1. Interpretation of findings relative to prior research
The results of this study broadly corroborate and extend the existing body of
literature across all three reviewed streams. Where prior technological-driver research
(Nozharov & Koralova-Nozharova, 2022; Junior et al., 2024) identified macroeconomic
patterns of low-skilled displacement without prescribing enterprise-level responses, the
HCDAF translates those patterns into actionable HR and educational interventions. This
addresses the central limitation identified in stream one -the absence of micro-level
strategies -and advances the research frontier from diagnostic to prescriptive.
Similarly, the governance and ecosystem literature (Huang, 2023; Lyu, 2024; Nagy,
2019) demonstrated the institutional and geographic conditions that enable digital
growth but did not specify the individual learning pathways through which talent
agglomeration materialises within organisations. The HCDAF fills this gap by providing the
enterprise-level mechanism -Modules 2 and 3 -through which macroeconomic
agglomeration dynamics are deliberately reproduced at scale.
In relation to the decentralised trust literature (Chen et al., 2022; Goodell, 2021;
Shyian, 2021), the framework extends the prevailing view of workers as passive nodes

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