Conditioning Factors of Digitally-Enabled Growth Strategy in SMEs

According to several authors (Kane et al., 2015; Yeow et al., 2018), strategy is a crucial element regarding firms' digitalization and technology is not the only key factor. On the other hand, SMEs face specific challenges to seize digitalization opportunities and take advantage of them, mainly due to their lack of resources and capabilities (Cenamora et al., 2019). Therefore, the purpose of this research is to deepen the study of digitalization in SMEs, focusing on the analysis of the strategic dimension. In particular, the aim is to better understand the factors that condition digital strategy in SMEs, considering this as a kind of strategy supporting firm's digitally-enabled growth (i.e. digitally-enabled growth strategy). The conditioning factors taken into account are digital leadership and digital organizational culture. A maturity model approach is applied. In particular, a self-assessment questionnaire based on the "DIGROW" digital maturity framework (North et al., 2019) was addressed to 7,040 SMEs from the Basque region (Spain) between July and November 2018, and was answered by the CEO or the IT manager in each firm. The number of firms that responded to the survey amounted to 540 (response rate 7.67%). After eliminating only partially completed or invalid questionnaires, the final sample consisted of 427 companies. The present study only focuses on SMEs (380 in total), leaving out micro-enterprises. The results of the regression model tested show that the relationship between each independent variable (i.e. digital leadership; digital mindset; empowered employees) and the dependent one (i.e. digitally-enabled growth strategy) is significant in all cases at a significance level of 95% (p<0.05) Therefore, it can be concluded that digital leadership, digital mindset, and the fact of having empowered employees who experiment with digital initiatives have a positive and significant influence on digitally-enabled growth strategy. This research sheds light on the factors that can support a digitally-enabled growth strategy, thus providing a better understanding of the aspects that need to be reinforced in order to sustain strategies guiding digital transformation and growth. The findings of this research are helpful for managers who want to foster the development of strategies than can support their firms' growth based on digitalization. Moreover, policy making can be improved by prioritizing the key drivers of business digital transition.