Content area
Full text
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the economies of many developing countries. A critical challenge faced by SME leaders, as digitization continues, is how to adopt digital technologies to create value and enable faster product commercialization. There is a paucity of empirical research examining how e-leadership in SMEs drives technology and new product commercialization processes in the developing world. In this study, we have broadened the notion of what constitutes e-leadership, from the perspective of how advanced information technologies affect the leadership dynamic and the appropriation of advanced information technologies. Although there have been several studies on leading technologies in developed countries, we focus on developing an e-leadership framework for SMEs in developing economies. Using this framework and five selection criteria, we conducted 11 interviews with a sample of successful SMEs selected from a pool of 2,240 firms in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. We conclude by highlighting the five key findings of this study, which explain how SMEs can develop effective e-leadership to foster commercialization and improve firm performance.
Keywords: e-leadership, SMEs, small- and mediumsized enterprises, digital technology, developing country, commercialization
"For Europe to compete, grow and generate jobs, we must ensure" that we have the people who can lead the digital innovation and transformation of our industries. ... E-leadership is a key component of the Digital Single Market Strategy's drive to foster digital skills needed for the modern European industry.
Lowri Evans
European Commission Director General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs
Introduction
Information and communication technology (ICT) has a major impact on businesses and society, however, the adoption of ICT has not been well incorporated into leadership theory (Van Wart et al., 2017). In particular, there is a paucity of research on e-leadership in developing countries (Hüsing et al., 2015; Rogerson, 2000) and the factors that direct leadership behaviour towards commercialization. The creation of new products to exploit existing technologies in a firm is a good example of a situation where knowledge that is codified within a firm requires the setup of a system of stable interactions between sets of skills relating to management, strategy, and ICT. These interactions and their implementation as managed by an e-leader will enable faster development and commercialization of new products...