Promoting digitally enabled growth in SMEs: a framework proposal

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide guidance to SMEs to sense and seize digitally enabled growth opportunities as well as start a project-based learning process to transform the organization in order to remain competitive in turbulent environments. Design/methodology/approach: The proposed framework is nurtured from a dynamic capabilities approach as well as from digital transformation studies and mitigates shortcomings of existing frameworks on IT-enabled business transformation. A pilot study has also been carried out for testing the proposed framework. Findings: The results of the pilot study show that the framework is well understood by SME owners or managers and contributes to a comprehensive perception of digitalization challenges and potentials. The overall maturity level of the 52 companies analyzed is moderate. Firms are better at “sensing” than “seizing”, that is, at identifying digitally based growth opportunities than in profiting from them. The test of the proposed framework also contributes to its further adjustment and refinement. Practical implications: The developed framework is useful for owners and managers of SMEs as a self-assessment of digital maturity. It sets a baseline regarding the current position and supports coordinated initiatives for digitally enabled growth. Originality/value: Few frameworks regarding digital maturity have been developed. Most of them lack a sound theoretical foundation and are less suited to the needs of SMEs. There are few studies on digitalization in SMEs and they are not focussed on capabilities development but mostly on processes (Trung Pham 2010; Blatz et al., 2018; Mittal et al., 2018). Therefore, the originality of this paper is to propose a framework that allows SMEs to assess their digital maturity level and the capabilities associated with each level to enhance digitally enabled growth, contributing to expand the research on the relationship between dynamic capabilities and digitalization (Teece, 2017).