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This is the second of a series of reviews for Small Enterprise Research that cover recently published research in the field of small business management and entrepreneurship. The focus of this review is on the impact of digital technology on small to medium enterprises (SMEs), in particular e-commerce, e-marketing and e-business implementation and strategy. A total of 16 papers published in 2013 - 2014 are reviewed summarising their methodology, findings and implications for research, education, policy and practice. The papers are discussed in four sub-categories. The first are those that deal with the importance of digital technology to the performance of SMEs. The second are those that focus on SMEs engagement with e-commerce and the third and fourth deal with SMEs engagement with e-business and e-marketing.
Keywords: digital technology; e-marketing; e-business; e-commerce; small business; SMEs
Introduction
Digital technology, specifically information and communications technologies (ICT), and their application to e-commerce, e-business and e-marketing have had a significant impact on business at a global level (Iansiti & Lakhani, 2014). For small to medium enterprises (SMEs)1 the spread of digital technologies is a significant opportunity and also a potentially serious threat. The opportunity comes from the ability of SMEs to access digital technologies that were previously only available to large companies and to use these to compete in international markets (Mele, 2013). Yet the threat emerges from SMEs losing business by not embracing the opportunities and becoming uncompetitive in increasingly digital and online markets.
In this article, the second of a series of reviews for Small Enterprise Research the findings from 16 papers relating to the impact of digital technology on SMEs is examined and discussed. Only papers published within the period 2013-2015 were reviewed. These were identified using a search of major online academic bibliographic databases including Google Scholar and the extensive collection of journals provided by the University of Western Australia Library. In searching for articles published between January 2013 and January 2015 attention was given to works from peer reviewed journals that addressed the engagement with and impact on SMEs of e-commerce, e-business, e-marketing and associated use of ICT and related digital technologies.
The importance of digital technology to SME performance
We start this review by examining three papers addressing the relationship between...