Digital transformation: Is Covid-19 a catalyst for micro and small enterprises first steps toward innovation?

Titolo Rivista MANAGEMENT CONTROL
Autori/Curatori Francesca Culasso, Elisa Giacosa, Daniele Giordino, Edoardo Crocco
Anno di pubblicazione 2022 Fascicolo 2022/2 Suppl. Lingua Inglese
Numero pagine 24 P. 71-94 Dimensione file 517 KB
DOI 10.3280/MACO2022-002-S1004
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FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA)associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche

The recent Covid-19 pandemic has deeply affected the financial health of com-panies all over the globe. Small and micro enterprises are more vulnerable due to their limited financial resources and lack of specialized knowledge. This article ex-plores the impact of the pandemic on the early stage of small companies’ Digital Transformation (DT), and its effect on the barriers to DT. The authors adopted an inductive qualitative approach and engaged in purposeful sampling to investigate micro and small enterprises operating in Piedmont, Italy, that were at the earliest stage of their DT journey. The final sample included 11 unique cases, involving a total of 49 interviews. The results show that the Covid-19 pandemic did not act as a catalyst to the DT of small and micro enterprises, instead sharpening the barriers to DT. The paper provides owners, managers, investors, politicians, and territorial institutions with a better understanding of the tools and initiatives that must be implemented to foster small and micro enterprises’ DT. The research, due to the selected sample, is limited to small companies’ personnel and to their owners' ex-periences

Keywords:Digital transformation, Micro business, SME, Covid-19, Innovation.

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Francesca Culasso, Elisa Giacosa, Daniele Giordino, Edoardo Crocco, Digital transformation: Is Covid-19 a catalyst for micro and small enterprises first steps toward innovation? in "MANAGEMENT CONTROL" 2 Suppl./2022, pp 71-94, DOI: 10.3280/MACO2022-002-S1004