Impact of E-Commerce and Digital Marketing Adoption on the Financial and Sustainability Performance of MSMEs during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Study

Jianli Gao (), Abu Bakkar Siddik, Sayyed Khawar Abbas, Muhammad Hamayun, Mohammad Masukujjaman () and Syed Shah Alam
Additional contact information
Jianli Gao: Business School, Shandong Technology and Business University, Yantai 264005, China
Muhammad Hamayun: Department of Management Science and Commerce, Bacha Khan University, Charsadda 25100, Pakistan
Mohammad Masukujjaman: Graduate School of Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Malaysia
Syed Shah Alam: Graduate School of Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Malaysia

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 2, 1-21

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has remarkably affected the business processes and performance of micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) across the world. MSMEs have had to adopt and implement numerous strategies to sustain their businesses, and their financial and sustainability performance has been impacted by their choice of e-commerce (EC) platforms and digital marketing (DM) strategies. The objective of this research was to explore the effects of EC and DM platforms and strategies on facilitating MSMEs’ financial and sustainability performance amid the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. This study gathered data from 212 MSMEs from three districts of Bangladesh. A partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was undertaken, to test the hypothesized model. The findings revealed that e-commerce had a significant association with MSMEs’ financial performance and sustainability amid the pandemic. It was also observed that digital marketing strategies had a substantial impact on MSMEs’ financial performance. However, the linkage between DM strategies and MSMEs’ sustainability was found to be insignificant. Furthermore, it was found that the financial performance of MSMEs mediated the relationship between e-commerce adoption and their sustainability performance. These findings contribute to the extant technology adoption literature, by exploring the role of e-commerce and digital marketing on firms’ financial outcomes amid a global pandemic. Managers and policymakers of small businesses can learn several things from this study, and understand how crucial digital commerce and digital marketing are to their success and long-term survival.

Keywords: E-commerce; digital marketing; sustainability; MSMEs; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/2/1594/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/2/1594/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:2:p:1594-:d:1035254

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().