<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>As digitalization in Europe is becoming more and more a priority, research has identified that there is a constantly existing gap between the European Union and the United States when it comes to the digitalization of enterprises. The situation is particularly obvious when it comes to the digitalization of small and medium enterprises. Published reports have noted that lack of access to financing is not seen as a debilitating factor, while developing economies in Europe, which the paper focuses on, do not report lack of infrastructure. As such, the paper produces, through a combined qualitative and quantitative pilot study, additional potential reasons for the lack of digitalization of SMEs in Europe which should be researched in the future: reactive mindset of waiting for growth in order to justify digitalization investments, lack of options for SMEs that do not necessarily desire to grow to large enterprises, and the lack of understanding of innovation and digitalization benefits for enterprises that do not have a culture for innovation.</p>
</abstract>

As digitalization in Europe is becoming more and more a priority, research has identified that there is a constantly existing gap between the European Union and the United States when it comes to the digitalization of enterprises. The situation is particularly obvious when it comes to the digitalization of small and medium enterprises. Published reports have noted that lack of access to financing is not seen as a debilitating factor, while developing economies in Europe, which the paper focuses on, do not report lack of infrastructure. As such, the paper produces, through a combined qualitative and quantitative pilot study, additional potential reasons for the lack of digitalization of SMEs in Europe which should be researched in the future: reactive mindset of waiting for growth in order to justify digitalization investments, lack of options for SMEs that do not necessarily desire to grow to large enterprises, and the lack of understanding of innovation and digitalization benefits for enterprises that do not have a culture for innovation.

Digitalization of SMEs – pilot study on status, reasoning, and perception in a developing economy

Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

As digitalization in Europe is becoming more and more a priority, research has identified that there is a constantly existing gap between the European Union...

Digitalization of SMEs – pilot study on status, reasoning, and perception in a developing economy

Published Online: Aug 08, 2022

Page range: 545 - 555

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/picbe-2022-0052

Keywords
digitalization, innovation, digital innovation, developing economy, Romania

© 2022 Nicolae-Marius Vavura, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Digitalization of SMEs – pilot study on status, reasoning, and perception in a developing economy

Published Online: Aug 08, 2022

Page range: 545 - 555

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/picbe-2022-0052

Keywordsdigitalization, innovation, digital innovation, developing economy, Romania

© 2022 Nicolae-Marius Vavura, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords
digitalization, innovation, digital innovation, developing economy, Romania