Adoption of digital technologies by SME entrepreneurs for sustainability and value creation: moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation

Abstract

Digital business transformation is considered an effective business strategy that appears to have gained attention since the enterprises are challenged to continuously improve their business practices as well as capabilities. The use of digital technologies could reduce the influence of external crises and could introduce massive changes in business operations by providing better business models. Moreover, adopting digital technology can influence both economic sustainability and social value of enterprises and can improve regional socio-economic conditions. There are few recent studies on how technology can empower enterprises at different phases of growth and sustainability; furthermore, very few studies are available that determine how adopting different modern digital technologies can create value for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Therefore, this study aims to close this gap and investigate the moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation. With the support of resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capability view (DCV) theories, along with a literature review, a theoretical model has been developed. It was then validated using the PLS-SEM technique considering 319 respondents who are SME employees in India. The findings show that adopting digital technologies has a significant impact on the creation of economic sustainability and social value for SMEs. The study also found a significant moderating impact of entrepreneurial orientation on the relationship between social and economic value creation and SME performance.