Pragmatist reflection on how micro and small businesses use digital technology to enhance dynamic capabilities in uncertain situations in Ghana

Adebowale Owoseni, Sylvester Hatsu and Adedamola Tolani

Chapter 10 in Building Digital Technological Capabilities, 2025, pp 277-301 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter revisits the knowledge of the dynamic capability (DC) framework from a pragmatist viewpoint. First, we encapsulate the DC constructs of micro and small businesses (MSBs) and exemplify the DC framework in practice. Second, we evaluate how MSBs demonstrate DCs and use digital technologies (DTs) in an extremely uncertain situation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study involved 46 Ghanaian MSBs. Findings suggest that collective DCs of MSBs do not change in a pandemic. Nonetheless, the extent to which MSBs demonstrated DCs increased by up to 82 per cent. Moreover, MSBs adopted payment technologies significantly more during a pandemic than social media technologies. Reflecting on the research outcomes, we argue that while the collective DCs of MSBs remain the same, each MSB uniquely explored opportunities by manifesting different combinations of DC constructs and DTs to varying extents, and the knowledge of how MSBs combine DCs could enhance small business management and innovation. Furthermore, MSBs’ adoption of payment technologies in extreme situations might improve financial inclusion and the development of indigenous DTs. These practical implications are valuable to firm managers and policymakers in developing and emerging economies. The study progresses the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG )8 on financial inclusion and entrepreneurship.

Keywords: Dynamic capabilities; Micro and small business; Digital technology; Pandemic; Pragmatism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781803922355
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