The Relationship between Digital Innovation and Social Change in Indonesian Society

Digital services have become embedded in communication, commerce, information access, and public-service use in Indonesia, but user-level evidence concerning their relationship with perceived social change remains limited. This study examined the relationship between digital innovation and perceived social change among users of digital services in Indonesia. A quantitative, cross-sectional explanatory survey was conducted with 220 respondents aged 17 years or older who were selected through purposive sampling. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, and simple linear regression. Digital innovation had a mean score of 4.13 (SD = 0.53), while social change had a mean score of 4.07 (SD = 0.57). The findings showed a positive and significant relationship between digital innovation and social change (r = 0.684; p < 0.001). The regression coefficient was 0.738, and the model explained 46.8% of the variation in social change (R² = 0.468). These findings indicate that greater use and acceptance of digital services were associated with more pronounced perceived changes in communication, transactions, information access, public-service use, lifestyle, and economic participation. However, the cross-sectional design does not establish causality, and purposive sampling limits generalisability. The findings underscore the importance of equitable digital infrastructure, digital literacy, data protection, and accessible digital public services. Future studies should employ probability sampling, longitudinal designs, and multivariate models to examine the mechanisms and distributional differences underlying this relationship.