Regulatory Ecosystem Norm Entrepreneurship in the Digital Sphere: EU Governance Frameworks and the Global Digital Order

The European Union (EU) has reshaped global digital governance through a form of norm entrepreneurship that operates through regulatory sequencing rather than persuasion. By constructing an interlocking regulatory ecosystem across data protection (GDPR), artificial intelligence governance (AI Act) and platform governance (DMA/DSA), the EU has driven norm emergence, anticipatory cascade and structural internalisation beyond its borders. The concept of Regulatory Ecosystem Norm Entrepreneurship (RENE) demonstrates how norms diffuse through market infrastructures, technical standards and architectural constraints, generating path dependence without full ideational convergence. These findings reveal a transformation of normative power in the digital age, where regulatory capacity increasingly substitutes for material dominance in shaping global order.