Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Which Italian SMEs fall in love with digitalisation? An exploration into the determinants

Which Italian SMEs fall in love with digitalisation? An exploration into the determinants Digitalisation represents an important opportunity for SMEs or, in other words, a fundamental factor to help them implement competitive strategies aimed at innovation, cost reduction and internationalization. This study aims to investigate the determinants of the level of digitalisation of Italian SMEs.Design/methodology/approachThis study firstly involves a survey based on short telephone interviews to measure the level of digitalisation of 101 Italian SMEs and, secondly, uses a regression model to identify the drivers of this level of digitalisation.FindingsEmpirical findings reveal that the Italian SMEs have an average level of digitalisation. Besides, they show that firm size, firm profitability and financial leverage represent drivers that positively influence the digitalisation of the Italian SMEs.Originality/valueThis study provides an important contribution to the academic literature by providing a first operationalization of the concept of business digitalisation and by broadening the knowledge of the drivers of the level of digitalisation in the SMEs context. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Meditari Accountancy Research Emerald Publishing

Which Italian SMEs fall in love with digitalisation? An exploration into the determinants

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/which-italian-smes-fall-in-love-with-digitalisation-an-exploration-ObwudG4C55

References (101)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
2049-372X
eISSN
2049-372X
DOI
10.1108/medar-02-2021-1210
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Digitalisation represents an important opportunity for SMEs or, in other words, a fundamental factor to help them implement competitive strategies aimed at innovation, cost reduction and internationalization. This study aims to investigate the determinants of the level of digitalisation of Italian SMEs.Design/methodology/approachThis study firstly involves a survey based on short telephone interviews to measure the level of digitalisation of 101 Italian SMEs and, secondly, uses a regression model to identify the drivers of this level of digitalisation.FindingsEmpirical findings reveal that the Italian SMEs have an average level of digitalisation. Besides, they show that firm size, firm profitability and financial leverage represent drivers that positively influence the digitalisation of the Italian SMEs.Originality/valueThis study provides an important contribution to the academic literature by providing a first operationalization of the concept of business digitalisation and by broadening the knowledge of the drivers of the level of digitalisation in the SMEs context.

Journal

Meditari Accountancy ResearchEmerald Publishing

Published: Jul 14, 2022

Keywords: Digitalisation; Digital transformation; SMEs; Italian context

There are no references for this article.