{"id":923,"date":"2023-04-27T20:17:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T17:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.etimm.ase.ro\/?p=923"},"modified":"2023-07-10T20:21:49","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T17:21:49","slug":"sme-and-digital-transformation-a-dream-too-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.etimm.ase.ro\/?p=923","title":{"rendered":"SME and digital transformation: a dream too far?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>\n<span style=\"font-size:12px;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia,serif;\"><strong>Title<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<span style=\"font-size:12px;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia,serif;\"><meta name=\"citation_title\" content=\"SME and digital transformation: a dream too far?\">SME and digital transformation: a dream too far?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h4>\n<span style=\"font-size:12px;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia,serif;\"><strong>Author<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<span style=\"font-size:12px;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia,serif;\"><meta name=\"citation_author\" content=\"Daniela Ioni\u021b\u0103\">Daniela Ioni\u021b\u0103, <meta name=\"citation_author\" content=\"Ion Alexandru Olteanu\">Ion Alexandru Olteanu<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size:12px;\"><meta name=\"citation_publication_date\" content=\"2023\/04\/27\"><meta name=\"citation_journal_title\" content=\"Journal of Emerging Trends in Marketing and Management\"><meta name=\"citation_volume\" content=\"I\"><meta name=\"citation_issue\" content=\"1\"><meta name=\"citation_firstpage\" content=\"7\"><meta name=\"citation_lastpage\" content=\"16\"><meta name=\"citation_place_published\" content=\"Bucharest, Romania\"><meta name=\"citation_publisher\" content=\"The Bucharest University of Economic Studies Publishing House\"><meta name=\"citation_issn\" content=\"2537-5865\"><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h4>\n<span style=\"font-family:georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size:12px;\"><strong>Classification JEL <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<span style=\"font-family:georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size:12px;\"><meta name=\"citation_classification_jel\" content=\"M10, O33.\">M10, O33.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h4>\n<span style=\"font-family:georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size:12px;\"><strong>Abstract<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<span style=\"font-family:georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size:12px;\"><meta name=\"citation_abstract\" content=\"Digital transformation is a critical process given its correlation with innovation, new competitive advantages and ultimately with a superior business performance. However, digital transformation in SMEs is less investigated and only a small number of rather personal factors \u2013 such as owner-manager's gender, age and educational background \u2013 were identified to influence the digitalization process. This study investigates the extent to which SMEs have adopted new digital technologies and what other organizational factors are correlated with a higher level of digitalization. Data were collected from 249 organizations through a CATI survey at the beginning of COVID pandemic and were analysed using bivariate statistical methods. The results indicate that less than 2% of SMEs have a strong degree of digitalization, while almost 80% of them have a weak level. Additionally, we identified three factors which influence the degree of digitalization, namely: industry, company\u2019s age and type of product sold. Thus, professional services industry has a high degree of digitalization, while retail has the lowest one. Older companies and those which provide mostly services have recorded a higher level, while startups and enterprises which offer physical goods are the least digitized. Surprisingly, there is no correlation between the size of the firm or its organizational structure (traditional, fluid or mixed) and the degree of adoption of digital technologies. Although the digitalization is relatively weak, the pandemic was an accelerator of digital transformation that has forced companies to test and implement new business models.\">Digital transformation is a critical process given its correlation with innovation, new competitive advantages and ultimately with a superior business performance. However, digital transformation in SMEs is less investigated and only a small number of rather personal factors \u2013 such as owner-manager&#8217;s gender, age and educational background \u2013 were identified to influence the digitalization process. This study investigates the extent to which SMEs have adopted new digital technologies and what other organizational factors are correlated with a higher level of digitalization. Data were collected from 249 organizations through a CATI survey at the beginning of COVID pandemic and were analysed using bivariate statistical methods. The results indicate that less than 2% of SMEs have a strong degree of digitalization, while almost 80% of them have a weak level. Additionally, we identified three factors which influence the degree of digitalization, namely: industry, company\u2019s age and type of product sold. Thus, professional services industry has a high degree of digitalization, while retail has the lowest one. Older companies and those which provide mostly services have recorded a higher level, while startups and enterprises which offer physical goods are the least digitized. Surprisingly, there is no correlation between the size of the firm or its organizational structure (traditional, fluid or mixed) and the degree of adoption of digital technologies. Although the digitalization is relatively weak, the pandemic was an accelerator of digital transformation that has forced companies to test and implement new business models.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h4>\n<span style=\"font-family:georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size:12px;\"><strong>Keywords<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<span style=\"font-family:georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size:12px;\"><meta name=\"citation_Keywords\" content=\"digital transformation, digitalization, SMEs, COVID pandemic.\">digital transformation, digitalization, SMEs, COVID pandemic.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h4>\n<span style=\"font-family:georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size:12px;\"><strong>Full Text: <meta name=\"citation_pdf_url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.etimm.ase.ro\/RePEc\/aes\/jetimm\/2023\/ETIMM_V01_2023_76.pdf\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.etimm.ase.ro\/RePEc\/aes\/jetimm\/2023\/ETIMM_V01_2023_76.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 205);\">download pdf<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size:12px;\"><strong>Cite: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.etimm.ase.ro\/RePEc\/aes\/jetimm\/2023\/ETIMM_V01_2023_76.ris\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: rgb(255, 0, 0);\">download citation<\/span><\/a> (for EndNote, Reference Manager, ProCite)<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Title SME and digital transformation: a dream too far? Author Daniela Ioni\u021b\u0103, Ion Alexandru Olteanu Classification JEL M10, O33. Abstract Digital transformation is a critical process given its correlation with innovation, new competitive advantages and ultimately with a superior business performance. However, digital transformation in SMEs is less investigated and &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"coauthors":[18],"class_list":["post-923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jetimm_2023"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etimm.ase.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etimm.ase.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etimm.ase.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etimm.ase.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etimm.ase.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.etimm.ase.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":924,"href":"https:\/\/www.etimm.ase.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923\/revisions\/924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etimm.ase.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etimm.ase.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etimm.ase.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=923"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etimm.ase.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}