The Impact of Digitalisation on the Performance of Romanian SMEs Listed on the AERO Market

The study explores the correlations between the digitalisation of Romanian firms and their financial performance, liquidity, leverage, and the reputation of the chosen auditor, focusing on SMEs listed on the AERO market. The topic is relevant to understanding the relationships between digitalisation and firms financial behaviors in the context of the limited empirical evidence available for Romanian SMEs. The analysis used data for the 2024 financial year, collected and validated in August September 2025 based on publicly available sources and information reported by firms, in order to capture the effective level of digitalisation and the related performance. Digitalisation was operationalised through a composite index (DI), comprising the components website, social media, communication, e-commerce, digital systems, and IT personnel, normalised and aggregated to reflect the overall level of digitalisation of each firm. The unit of analysis was the firm, and the estimated models included Spearman correlations for the association between DI and auditor reputation (H1 and H7), multiple regressions for leverage, profitability, and turnover (H2-H4 and H8), logistic regression for binary liquidity (H5), and Kruskal Wallis nonparametric tests for sectoral differences (H6). To validate the results, the main hypotheses (H1, H3, and H8) were retested using weighted variants of the DI index, confirming the robustness of the observed trends. The results showed a positive correlation between digitalisation and auditor reputation, a higher level of digitalisation in the IT sector, and associations between digitalisation and certain financial characteristics (leverage and turnover), while firm size and immediate liquidity did not show a significant association. Apart from the relationships identified above, the other hypotheses were not statistically supported, highlighting that digitalisation manifests rather as a strategy of investment and firm resource management than as a direct determinant of financial performance. The results of the study revealed the need to further investigate the identified relationships through longitudinal studies and by using more complex indicators of digitalisation.