IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp17516.html

Small Enterprises' Digital Competencies and Financial Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Drydakis, Nick

    (Anglia Ruskin University)

Abstract

In the contemporary business landscape, digital competencies have become a crucial factor for small enterprises to remain competitive and thrive. The present study examines how a business applications training, aiming to boost small enterprises' digital competencies, affects their financial performance. The business applications training took place in Greece, Cyprus, and the United Kingdom. Longitudinal data were collected between 2021 and 2023. The study revealed a positive association between digital competencies and the revenue growth rate of enterprises. Moreover, it was observed that following business applications training, the impact of digital competencies on the revenue growth rate strengthened compared to before the training. This pattern persisted across all three regions, underscoring the robustness of the estimated outcome. The study indicates that training that boosts enterprises' digital competencies could facilitate their ability to adapt to changing market conditions and stay competitive, contributing to increased financial performance. Small enterprises that develop and leverage digital competencies could be better positioned to seize growth opportunities, enhance efficiency, and adapt to the evolving business landscape.

Suggested Citation

  • Drydakis, Nick, 2024. "Small Enterprises' Digital Competencies and Financial Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 17516, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17516
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp17516.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nick Drydakis, 2022. "Improving Entrepreneurs’ Digital Skills and Firms’ Digital Competencies through Business Apps Training: A Study of Small Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-23, April.
    2. Nick Drydakis, 2024. "Artificial intelligence capital and employment prospects," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 76(4), pages 901-919.
    3. Panos Hatziprokopiou & Yannis Frangopoulos, 2016. "Migrant economies and everyday spaces in Athens in times of crisis," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 61-74, February.
    4. Nick Drydakis, 2022. "Artificial Intelligence and Reduced SMEs’ Business Risks. A Dynamic Capabilities Analysis During the COVID-19 Pandemic," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1223-1247, August.
    5. Krol, Robert, 2021. "The Effects of Immigration on Entrepreneurship and Innovation," Working Papers 11209, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    6. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Drydakis, Nick, 2024. "Business disruptions due to social vulnerability and criminal activities in urban areas," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    2. Nick Drydakis, 2022. "Improving Entrepreneurs’ Digital Skills and Firms’ Digital Competencies through Business Apps Training: A Study of Small Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-23, April.
    3. Drydakis, Nick, 2024. "Reducing the Gender Digital Divide Amongst Immigrant Entrepreneurs," IZA Discussion Papers 17275, IZA Network @ LISER.
    4. Nick Drydakis, 2024. "Artificial intelligence capital and employment prospects," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 76(4), pages 901-919.
    5. Drydakis, Nick, 2026. "Artificial Intelligence Capital and Business Innovation," IZA Discussion Papers 18476, IZA Network @ LISER.
    6. Drydakis, Nick, 2025. "The Formation of AI Capital in Higher Education: Enhancing Students' Academic Performance and Employment Rates," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1668, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. Averi Chakrabarti & Karen A Grépin & Stéphane Helleringer, 2019. "The impact of supplementary immunization activities on routine vaccination coverage: An instrumental variable analysis in five low-income countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-11, February.
    8. Ichev, Riste & Valentinčič, Aljoša, 2025. "The effect of impact investing on performance of private firms," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(PA).
    9. Huh, Yesol & Kim, You Suk, 2023. "Cheapest-to-deliver pricing, optimal MBS securitization, and welfare implications," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(1), pages 68-93.
    10. Ji Yan & Sally Brocksen, 2013. "Adolescent risk perception, substance use, and educational attainment," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(8), pages 1037-1055, September.
    11. Sènakpon Fidèle A. Dedehouanou & Luca Tiberti & Hilaire G. Houeninvo & Djohodo Inès Monwanou, 2019. "Working while studying: Employment premium or penalty for youth in Benin?," Working Papers PMMA 2019-03, PEP-PMMA.
    12. Mengyuan Zhou, 2022. "Does the Source of Inheritance Matter in Bequest Attitudes? Evidence from Japan," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 867-887, December.
    13. Sandra Müllbacher & Wolfgang Nagl, 2017. "Labour supply in Austria: an assessment of recent developments and the effects of a tax reform," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 44(3), pages 465-486, August.
    14. Campbell, Randall C. & Nagel, Gregory L., 2016. "Private information and limitations of Heckman's estimator in banking and corporate finance research," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 186-195.
    15. Christopher Dick-Sagoe & Ernest Ngeh Tingum & Peter Asare-Nuamah & Denis N. Yuni & Nicholas Baidoo, 2025. "Central transfers and incentives to collect local revenue among the Central Region of Ghana’s local government officials: analysing the flypaper effect," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    16. Maurice Mutisya & Moses W. Ngware & Caroline W. Kabiru & Ngianga-bakwin Kandala, 2016. "The effect of education on household food security in two informal urban settlements in Kenya: a longitudinal analysis," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(4), pages 743-756, August.
    17. Ilona Babenko & Benjamin Bennett & John M Bizjak & Jeffrey L Coles & Jason J Sandvik, 2023. "Clawback Provisions and Firm Risk," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 191-239.
    18. Emilia Vann Yaroson & Soumyadeb Chowdhury & Sachin Kumar Mangla & Prasanta Kumar Dey, 2024. "Unearthing the interplay between organisational resources, knowledge and industry 4.0 analytical decision support tools to achieve sustainability and supply chain wellbeing," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 342(2), pages 1321-1368, November.
    19. Şahan, Duygu & Tuna, Okan, 2018. "Environmental innovation of transportation sector in OECD countries," Chapters from the Proceedings of the Hamburg International Conference of Logistics (HICL), in: Kersten, Wolfgang & Blecker, Thorsten & Ringle, Christian M. (ed.), The Road to a Digitalized Supply Chain Management: Smart and Digital Solutions for Supply Chain Management. Proceedings of the Hamburg International C, volume 25, pages 157-170, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute of Business Logistics and General Management.
    20. Mehzabin Tuli, Farzana & Mitra, Suman & Crews, Mariah B., 2021. "Factors influencing the usage of shared E-scooters in Chicago," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 164-185.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D25 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Intertemporal Firm Choice: Investment, Capacity, and Financing
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • M53 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Training

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17516. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Mark Fallak (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaalu.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.