The digitalization and public crisis responses of small and medium enterprises:Implications from a COVID-19 survey

摘要

The 2019 novel coronavirus disease(COVID-19)outbreak is a global crisis that has placed small and medium enterprises(SMEs)under huge pressure to survive,requiring them to respond effectively to the crisis.SMEs have adopted various digital tech no logies to cope with this crisis.Using a data set from a survey with 518 Chin ese SMEs,the study examines the relati on ship between SMEs''digitalizatio n and their public crisis responses.The empirical results show that digitalization has enabled SMEs to respond effectively to the public crisis by making use of their dynamic capabilities.In addition,digitalization can help improve SMEs''performance.We propose a theoretical framework ofdigitalization and crisis respohses for SMEs and present three avenues for future research.