DITABIMICOMPET

PID2024-162556NB-I00

Digital transformation and business model innovation are key to internationalization and improving the competitiveness of all companies, including SMEs. However, due to their pervasive resource scarcity, behavioral characteristics, and lack of commitment to developing a DT strategy, SMEs are particularly compelling for studying the challenges and opportunities related to transformational processes such as Digital Transformation and Business Model Innovation. Current research recognizes the vast opportunities of Digital Transformation for SMEs. However, it also points to the uneven preparation of SMEs to undertake these transformative processes and emphasizes obstacles in terms of strategic imperatives and needed organizational changes that they impose.

Our general research problem is: Under current environmental dynamism, how do Spanish SMEs improve their internationalization and competitiveness through Digital Transformation and Business Model Innovation? Our proposal extends previous research by a) refining the concepts of Digital Transformation and Business Model Innovation for SMEs and b) unfolding the different antecedents at the macro (firm), meso (TMT/CEO), and micro (individual) levels that intervene in this research problem.
Our starting hypothesis is that SMEs' competitiveness is positively related to their Digital transformation. Such a relationship is contingent on a) the internal and strategic alignment of the innovation in their business model, b) the existence of digital vision and digital strategy at the firm level as well as the firm social media capabilities, c) the digital managerial capabilities and digital literacy of the CEO and the TMT, and e) digital skills, working conditions and behavior of employees.

Theoretically, our proposal is novel in three different ways: a) it aims at a multidimensional understanding of SMEs' competitiveness, b) it aims at a more comprehensive and fine-grained conceptualization of Digital Transformation and Business Model Innovation, and c) it proposes a multilevel composition of antecedents. Additionally, at the methodological level, our proposal is novel. Most research in business management has been based on qualitative studies (e.g., case studies) or cross-sectional quantitative studies (e.g., surveys), contributing to a better understanding of the relationships between variables in one case or to greater generalization in the other. However, this type of study poses problems of identification, endogeneity, bias, and measurement errors, and the impossibility of establishing causal relationships, among others. We propose to apply a mixed approach and introduce experimental methods to better understand the causal relationships and avoid confounding elements in the models.

Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities

• AGE - Knowledge Generation Projects