To read this content please select one of the options below:

Digital responses of SMEs to the COVID-19 crisis

Ioannis Giotopoulos (Department of Economics, University of Peloponnese – Tripoli Campus, Tripoli, Greece)
Alexandra Kontolaimou (Centre of Planning and Economic Research (KEPE), Athens, Greece)
Aggelos Tsakanikas (Laboratory of Industrial and Energy Economics, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece)

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research

ISSN: 1355-2554

Article publication date: 2 August 2022

Issue publication date: 28 October 2022

945

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims at exploring the factors that are important for the digital development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis compared to large-sized enterprises.

Design/methodology/approach

Using data from a survey in Greek firms during the pandemic, econometric models are estimated to identify factors that are related to the expansion of digital marketing and e-commerce practices of SMEs and large-sized enterprises based on the technology–organization–environment framework.

Findings

The results suggest that while further investments in information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure are important for the digital development of SMEs during the COVID-19 crisis, it is the innovative activities that advance the digitalization of large-sized enterprises. Also, SMEs, which implement flexible human resource (HR) practices (such as remote work) and face delays in the supply chain due to the pandemic, appear to have increased probability of expanding their digital marketing and e-commerce. On the contrary, HR practices do not seem to matter for large firms, while new regulations appear to discourage their digital development during the COVID-19 crisis.

Originality/value

This is the first study which empirically explores the digital reactions of SMEs compared to those of large-sized enterprises in a pandemic crisis context. It advances the limited knowledge on the potentially different responses of SMEs and large-sized enterprises to major external shocks with respect to their digital marketing and e-commerce expansion.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Aggelos Tsakanikas and Ioannis Giotopoulos acknowledge funding support from the Greek General Secretariat for Research and Technology in the context of the Bilateral Research and Innovation Programme “INNOMSME (On the INNOvativeness of Micro, Small, and Medium Sized Enterprises in Greece and Germany),” within the Greek-German Research Cooperation carried out by the DIW Berlin and the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE).

Citation

Giotopoulos, I., Kontolaimou, A. and Tsakanikas, A. (2022), "Digital responses of SMEs to the COVID-19 crisis", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 28 No. 7, pp. 1751-1772. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-11-2021-0924

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles