Adoption of Digital Marketing Toward Digital Transformation in Indonesian Micro- and Small-Sized Enterprises

Abstract

Digital transformation in various industries has led to considerable changes in organizational strategic behavior. Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the global sense, have been under pressure to adopt information and communication technology to increase their performance. Digital marketing has started to be recognized as one potential enabler of digital transformation. Managerial practices and academic literature provide limited guidance on how digital marketing can be used as an enabler of digital transformation across enterprises. This is especially in dearth among the study of MSMEs, particularly in emerging countries such as Indonesia where MSMEs have significant major roles in economic growth and workforce absorption. Besides, only a small portion of Indonesian MSMEs has embraced digital technology. Using the case study method, this paper finds that digital marketing adoption of the MSMEs may serve as the first-level enabler of digital transformation by allowing the MSMEs to enhance its dynamic capabilities. This paper contributes to the area of digital transformation through a marketing perspective, something that is novel in the context of MSMEs. For managers, the results of the study provide actionable guidelines for the MSMEs on how to drive digital transformation with digital marketing as the entry-level of adoption.