Determinants of digitization in SMEs

Agata Marcysiak,Żanna Pleskacz

doi:10.9770/jesi.2021.9.1(18)

Abstract

The aim of the study is to present the conditions for introducing digitization in enterprises of the Polish SME sector, with particular emphasis on the changes brought about by the pandemic. The study analyses the degree of digitization which has taken place in the Polish economy in comparison with the EU average, with particular emphasis on SMEs, by making recourse to the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI).This study presents the results of my own research on the determinants of digitization in enterprises. The subject of the research was a group of enterprises classified as SMEs in Poland. The survey was conducted in March 2021 using electronic tools in the form of an online survey. After substantive and logical verification, 120 questionnaires were selected for further analysis.The analysis of enterprises from the SME sector showed that over 44% of enterprises operate on the basis of action plans not exceeding one year. This type of planning was particularly common in micro-enterprises employing up to 10 people and running a service activity. Digitization acted as an important process in the activities of the analysed enterprises. Every fifth surveyed enterprise had plans to invest in software and digital solutions for enterprises;and wanted to implement these plans within the next year. The most common area of activity and implementation of digital solutions was sales and distribution. This was due to the need during the pandemic to build new distribution channels for products or services through the increasingly important e-commerce market. Research has shown that the Covid situation has led to significant changes taking place in the economy of enterprises. More than half of the analysed enterprises indicated a lack of financial resources as a barrier when introducing cloud solutions.

Highlights

Given the changing economic environment, enterprises have had to adapt to the standards of new digital reality. in order to make decisions, they require digital tools that are essential for managing an ever-increasing amount of data and the carrying out of analysis
The study analyses the degree of digitization which has taken place in the Polish economy in comparison with the EU average, with particular emphasis on SMEs, by making recourse to the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI)
The analysed DESI indicator shows that Poland needs to accelerate its efforts so that enterprises may start availing of the possibilities of digital technologies

Summary

Introduction

Given the changing economic environment, enterprises have had to adapt to the standards of new digital reality. in order to make decisions, they require digital tools that are essential for managing an ever-increasing amount of data and the carrying out of analysis. Given the changing economic environment, enterprises have had to adapt to the standards of new digital reality. The new business support tools are mainly digital (Villa & Taurino, 2019; Oliveira et al, 2021). This means that enterprises must become familiar with digital solutions, as over time they will not be able to communicate in a fluid and effective manner with either suppliers or customers (Genest & Gamache, 2020; Ardito et al, 2021). Enterprises must move from the old order of information flow in the physical dimension in the form of cash, checks, invoices, consignment notes, reports, meetings, calls to the new economic order, where information in all its forms is digital (Siedler et al, 2019; Ballestar et al, 2020). The modern economy is increasingly a digital economy that allows people to communicate with each other in order to optimize their potential (Gamache et al, 2019; Bouwman et al, 2019)

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