Keeping pace with the digital transformation — exploring the digital orientation of SMEs

Kevin Escoz Barragan () and Felix Simon Rudolf Becker ()
Additional contact information
Kevin Escoz Barragan: University of Siegen
Felix Simon Rudolf Becker: University of Siegen

Small Business Economics, 2025, vol. 64, issue 3, No 19, 1385 pages

Abstract: Abstract In the digital era, organizations strategically adopt digital transformation to thrive and prosper. In particular, they allocate substantial resources to cultivate digital orientation. However, limited research has explored how digital orientation impacts the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Our study sheds light on this relationship, examining it through the lens of a resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capability (DC) perspective. We empirically quantify digital orientation and its subdimensions using textual data extracted from SME websites. Our findings unveil a U-shaped relationship: while high performance is observable at both extremes of the spectrum, an initial increase in digital orientation is associated with performance setbacks until a specific threshold of digital orientation is reached, after which performance once again begins to improve. As a result, SMEs should consider a strategic allocation of resources while pursuing digital orientation to build capabilities during their digital transformation journey.

Keywords: Digital orientation; Performance; SMEs; Resource-based view; Dynamic capabilities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L25 L26 M15 O32 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11187-024-00947-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:kap:sbusec:v:64:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11187-024-00947-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... 29/journal/11187/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11187-024-00947-7

Access Statistics for this article

Small Business Economics is currently edited by Zoltan J. Acs and David B. Audretsch

More articles in Small Business Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().