Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises’ need for digitization to counteract COVID-19: From “nice-to-have” to “must-have”?

ABSTRACT

The impact of COVID-19 on Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) has been devastating. Digitization has been one of the core strategies to cushion the impact of the pandemic. Based upon a questionnaire distributed in October 2020 to a sample of 345 US, 100 UK and 100 Indian MSMEs, we empirically investigate the determinants of MSMEs’ digitization as a strategy to confront the pandemic. Prior digital experience and company size seem to be predictive of the ability to implement new digital strategies during the pandemic. Our data also show that digital MSMEs expected lower sales drop caused by COVID-19. As policy implications, governments should target non-digital, smaller MSMEs to help them engage in digital transformation.

KEYWORDS:

• UN SDG 9
• COVID-19
• digitization
• MSMs
• strategy

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Prince Sultan University for their support. Next Chapter Institute LLC and Curiosity Consulting LLC’s assistance was essential to gather the empirical data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.