Table 2 Key articles on SME digital... | Emerald Publishing

Table 2

Key articles on SME digital maturity as a strategic response to market disruption during COVID-19

Authors	Objective	Main contribution
Fletcher and Griffiths (2020)	Approaches the disruption caused by COVID-19 through a VUCA lens to reflect on how the pandemic exposed the resilience of less digitally mature organisations, both large and small	- Digital maturity is a continuous process and a long-term strategic goal - Less digitally mature organisations exhibit higher levels of fragility and less resilience - Digitally mature organisations are generally more flexible than less digitally mature organisations
Guo et al. (2020)	Empirical study examining the relationship between the digitalization efforts of 518 Chinese SMEs and their public crisis responses during COVID-19	SMEs with a high degree of digital technology adoption had more effective COVID-19 responses and recorded superior performance
He et al. (2022)	Empirical examination of the theoretical relationship between digital transformation and organizational resilience for organizations and employees during turbulent times such as COVID-19	- Digital transformation develops systems to sustain operations in crises - Digital maturity does not directly contribute to employees’ capabilities to accurately understand external uncertainty or to actively or develop adaptive solutions
Papadopoulous et al. (2020)	Focused on SMEs’ use of digital technology to ensure business continuity amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and provides research gaps and future areas for research	Suggests that SMEs should take a proactive, integrated digital development approach to strengthen their resilience and weather the impact of disruptions
Priyono et al. (2020)	Qualitative analysis of seven manufacturing SMEs in Indonesia to SMEs who digitally transformed their businesses during COVID-19	Three digital transformation paths are identified Accelerated digital transformation Digitally immature SMEs that experienced liquidity challenges digitized their sales function only SMEs with limited digital literacy and a high level of social capital connected with partners who possessed superior digital capabilities
Rajagopaul et al. (2020)	Best practice study on how South African SMEs can address challenges brought on by COVID-19	- Leverage technology to reach new customers and provide a distinctive value propositions - Develop resilience strategies that would reimagine their existing business models to be more agile in a digital future
Van den Born et al. (2020)	Longitudinal experimental study (ongoing) with 200 Dutch SMEs to assess the effect of their digital maturity on digital innovation and organisational success during COVID-19	Testing two opposing hypotheses Digitally mature SMEs would only need to implement incremental digital innovation to ensure the necessary turnaround strategies under extreme adversity SMEs’ degree of digital maturity is irrelevant to their survival or success during the pandemic
Klein and Todesco (2021)	Analyses the strengths, weaknesses, challenges and opportunities of SMEs adopting a digital transformation strategy during COVID-19 using organisational resilience theory	Proposes a conceptual model that charts how a knowledge management strategy, using organisational resilience, can assist SMEs to capitalise on digital transformation opportunities

Authors	Objective	Main contribution
Fletcher and Griffiths (2020)	Approaches the disruption caused by COVID-19 through a VUCA lens to reflect on how the pandemic exposed the resilience of less digitally mature organisations, both large and small	- Digital maturity is a continuous process and a long-term strategic goal - Less digitally mature organisations exhibit higher levels of fragility and less resilience - Digitally mature organisations are generally more flexible than less digitally mature organisations
Guo et al. (2020)	Empirical study examining the relationship between the digitalization efforts of 518 Chinese SMEs and their public crisis responses during COVID-19	SMEs with a high degree of digital technology adoption had more effective COVID-19 responses and recorded superior performance
He et al. (2022)	Empirical examination of the theoretical relationship between digital transformation and organizational resilience for organizations and employees during turbulent times such as COVID-19	- Digital transformation develops systems to sustain operations in crises - Digital maturity does not directly contribute to employees’ capabilities to accurately understand external uncertainty or to actively or develop adaptive solutions
Papadopoulous et al. (2020)	Focused on SMEs’ use of digital technology to ensure business continuity amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and provides research gaps and future areas for research	Suggests that SMEs should take a proactive, integrated digital development approach to strengthen their resilience and weather the impact of disruptions
Priyono et al. (2020)	Qualitative analysis of seven manufacturing SMEs in Indonesia to SMEs who digitally transformed their businesses during COVID-19	Three digital transformation paths are identified Accelerated digital transformation Digitally immature SMEs that experienced liquidity challenges digitized their sales function only SMEs with limited digital literacy and a high level of social capital connected with partners who possessed superior digital capabilities
Rajagopaul et al. (2020)	Best practice study on how South African SMEs can address challenges brought on by COVID-19	- Leverage technology to reach new customers and provide a distinctive value propositions - Develop resilience strategies that would reimagine their existing business models to be more agile in a digital future
Van den Born et al. (2020)	Longitudinal experimental study (ongoing) with 200 Dutch SMEs to assess the effect of their digital maturity on digital innovation and organisational success during COVID-19	Testing two opposing hypotheses Digitally mature SMEs would only need to implement incremental digital innovation to ensure the necessary turnaround strategies under extreme adversity SMEs’ degree of digital maturity is irrelevant to their survival or success during the pandemic
Klein and Todesco (2021)	Analyses the strengths, weaknesses, challenges and opportunities of SMEs adopting a digital transformation strategy during COVID-19 using organisational resilience theory	Proposes a conceptual model that charts how a knowledge management strategy, using organisational resilience, can assist SMEs to capitalise on digital transformation opportunities