The challenge of implementing digitalization in SMEs

SMEs - Small and Medium Enterprises, are considered the driving force in most economies, responsible for employment, innovation and growth. The attention to this segment of firms is justified by considering that they represent a significant and important part on the economy. Despite their undeniable importance for the socio-economic context, they encounter many difficulties in maintaining their business, consequently for their survival.

As technology is one of the main tools available to firms to achieve competitiveness, identifying elements that may contribute to the process of technology implementation and management is crucial for the growth and sustainability of SMEs.

One of the few studies focusing on the impact of digitalization on SMEs, Gruber (2019) recently identified four reasons to explain why digital transformation occurs slowly in SMEs. First, small businesses with specific focus are less exposed to the need for rapid digitisation. Second, these companies generally lack the skilled workforce and managerial vision to fully understand the impacts of digital transformation. Third, SMEs generally adopt a gradual approach to digitization compared to large companies. Finally, the in-vestment in digitization in this type of firms depends a lot on the financial performance of the companies and, generally, they have more limited resources to use in this area.

At the same time that new technologies allow enterprises the opportunity to grow and offer more comfort to their clients, the democ-ratization of access to technologies brings perspectives, previously unthinkable, also concerning the internationalization of SMEs.

In the tourism sector, for example, the implementation of technological solutions is determinant for competitiveness and make inter-nationalization possible. Often the cost of implementing digitalization in this sector is very low and easy to access, with the skilled workforce playing a key role in this process. Digital marketing, for example, may be used as a tool for partnerships and showcase of a business.

Technology is one of the most important factors of change in the transformation of companies. Such transformations are not only restricted to the way to communicate and produce, but also induce new processes and instruments that completely reach the structure and behaviour of organizations, directly impacting on their management and sustainability.