COVID-19 Disruption Risk—A Game-Changing Factor for SMEs Digital Supply Chain Transformation

Abstract

Digital transformation in supply chains has emerged as a response to minimize disruption risks during the COVID-19 pandemic. While both large and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are placing considerable effort into digital transformation, the interactions between environmental dynamism, technology, and organizational capabilities, seem to favor the SMEs’ efforts and rapidly close the digital gap between them and large enterprises. This paper is based on the technology-organization-environment framework (TOE) and uses multi-group analysis on 923 firms in Vietnamese to empirically explore this phenomenon. This study found that faster digital transformation uptake could be achieved under the impacts of the TOE three sets of factors. However, SMEs were found to adopt faster technology deployment rates than large enterprises as the pandemic disrupts and resets the adoption path of digital technologies. This study provides crucial implications for both SMEs and large enterprises in their digital transformation.