Adapting emerging digital communication technologies for resilience: evidence from Nigerian SMEs

Folajimi Ashiru, Franklin Nakpodia, Jacqueline J You

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)
86 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Drawing on the Diffusion of Innovation Theory, this study explores how emerging digital communication technologies (EDCT) affected SMEs' resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. We employed an inductive and qualitative approach to investigate 42 SME operators in a weak institutional developing country-Nigeria. Our findings show that EDCT played a critical role in activating SMEs' resilience during the crisis through four drivers: facilitating connections and bonding with staff, clients, and suppliers; enabling collaborations; activating process diversification; and enhancing supply chain flexibility. Furthermore, we highlight the distinct ability of Nigerian SMEs to buffer themselves against misinformation arising from the use of EDCT. This study sheds light on an EDCT Diffusion Model for resilience. [Abstract copyright: © The Author(s) 2022.]
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)795-823
Number of pages29
JournalAnnals of Operations Research
Volume327
Issue number2
Early online date23 Nov 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2023

Bibliographical note

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Keywords

  • Emerging digital communication technologies
  • COVID-19
  • Disruptions
  • Nigeria
  • Diffusion of innovation
  • Weak institutional environment

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