2026· Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation· Vol 22, pp. 5-24· 0 citations· 58 references
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores how small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and adjacent actors in the European food sector navigate the dual imperatives of digital transformation and sustainability. While policy and academic discourse increasingly frame these agendas as complementary under the “twin transition,” limited research explores how resource-constrained food companies and adjacent actors perceive, prioritize, and operationalize their integration, especially given the sector's reputation for slow adoption of new technologies. The paper addresses this gap by investigating the complementarities, tensions, and trade-offs shaping the relationship between digitalization and ecological objectives at the firm level. METHODOLOGY: Adopting an exploratory qualitative design, the study draws on 21 semi-structured interviews with representatives from SMEs and adjacent ecosystem actors in the European food sector. Using the Gioia methodology, data were analyzed inductively through first-order coding, second-order themes, and aggregate dimensions, enabling the development of empirically grounded insights into strategic priorities, organizational barriers, and managerial practices.
Findings
The results reveal a conditional and reciprocal relationship between digital transformation and sustainability. Digital technologies, such as IoT monitoring, traceability platforms, and precision agriculture systems, are widely perceived as enablers of sustainability by enhancing efficiency, transparency, and regulatory compliance. Sustainability commitments, in turn, shape digital adoption by directing investment toward technologies that support ecological objectives. However, resource scarcity, fragmented regulations, skill deficits, and organizational resistance act as significant barriers, often forcing companies to prioritize one agenda over the other. Moreover, digitalization can introduce new ecological risks, such as electronic waste or higher energy consumption, complicating the assumption of automatic complementarity. IMPLICATIONS: Theoretically, the study advances an exploratory map that positions digital transformation and sustainability as mutually influential but contingent processes shaped by institutional pressures, sectoral structures, and resource availability. For practice, it highlights the importance of strategic leadership, cross-functional collaboration, stakeholder engagement, and workforce training to overcome barriers and realize synergies. ORIGINALITY & VALUE: The originality of this research lies in its specific focus on European food sector and adjacent ecosystem actors, offering preliminary but empirically grounded insights into the “twin transition” under resource-constrained conditions in a relatively conservative sector.
Digital transformation is increasingly recognized as an important enabler of sustainable development and competitiveness in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, evidence on how different dimensions of digital transformation relate to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) remains limited. This study explores the relationship between digital transformation and selected Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, in which quantitative findings informed the subsequent qualitative exploration and interpretation of managerial perspectives. The quantitative phase combined data from Eurostat’s ICT Usage Survey (2020–2024), including 60 sustainability-related indicators, with an analysis of the relationship between the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) and selected SDG indicators across 27 EU member states using Spearman’s rank correlation. The quantitative analysis suggests that Slovenia performs close to the EU average in overall digitalization, while significant associations were identified between digitalization and SDG 9. The qualitative phase consisted of semi-structured interviews with managers from ten Slovenian SMEs from different sectors. The findings indicate that managers perceive digital technologies, process digitalization, data-driven decision-making, and employee digital competencies as important contributors to sustainability-related outcomes, particularly in relation to SDG 8, SDG 9, SDG 12, and SDG 13. The study contributes to the literature on sustainability-oriented digital transformation in SMEs by integrating quantitative benchmarking with managerial perspectives. The findings highlight the importance of organizational capabilities, digital competencies, and strategic alignment in translating digital transformation initiatives into sustainability-related outcomes. The results provide practical implications for SMEs and policymakers seeking to support sustainable and digitally enabled business development.
Jurij Verhovnik, Simona Stojanova, Nina Cvar et al.· Sustainability· 0 citations
The article examines the relevance of digital transformation in agriculture under conditions of structural heterogeneity, institutional asymmetry, market volatility, and crisis-related disruptions, with a particular focus on Ukraine as a transitional and war-affected economy. Digitalisation is conceptualised not merely as a technological modernisation process, but as a systemic transformation that reshapes production models, governance mechanisms, and value-chain coordination within agri-food systems. In this context, digital technologies function as instruments of productivity growth, environmental sustainability, traceability compliance, and long-term sectoral resilience.
The purpose of the study is to identify, compare, and systematise the key drivers and barriers influencing the adoption of digital technologies in agricultural enterprises across diverse international contexts, and to formulate analytically grounded and policy-relevant lessons for Ukraine. The research is based on comparative qualitative analysis of peer-reviewed international literature, thematic synthesis of technological, economic, organisational, and institutional determinants, and contextual assessment of global digitalisation models adapted to Ukrainian infrastructural, regulatory, and crisis-related realities.
The findings demonstrate that barriers to digital transformation operate as an interconnected systemic configuration in which constraints in infrastructure, finance, governance, and human capital reinforce one another, thereby limiting the effectiveness of isolated or sector-specific interventions. The study also identifies distinct digitalisation trajectories in developed, emerging, and innovation-driven agricultural systems, revealing differences in policy coordination, innovation ecosystems, and market incentives.
A novel concept of resilience-driven digitalisation is proposed to explain technology adoption under extreme uncertainty, where digital tools are implemented not primarily for efficiency gains but to ensure operational continuity, remote management, risk monitoring, and adaptive decision-making in crisis environments.
V. Kolisnichenko· THEORETICAL AND APPLIED ISSU...· 0 citations
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) increasingly need to reconfigure how they create, deliver, and capture value in response to digitalisation, sustainability demands, and environmental uncertainty. This study systematically reviews 162 English-language articles published in SSCI-indexed journals to integrate fragmented research on business model innovation (BMI) in SMEs. Descriptive analysis, keyword co-occurrence analysis, and article-level qualitative content analysis are combined. The findings identify four broad knowledge domains and show that 41 studies treat BMI primarily as an outcome, 44 as an organisational process, 17 as an antecedent of subsequent outcomes, and 36 as part of a combined causal relationship; a further 24 studies are descriptive or typological. Across these roles, the literature explains BMI through resource mobilisation, entrepreneurial action logics, absorptive and dynamic capabilities, experimentation, and network mobilisation. Its effects on performance, growth, resilience, internationalisation, and sustainability depend on complementary resources, implementation capabilities, stakeholder alignment, and environmental conditions. The evidence supports an adaptive and iterative interpretation of SME BMI, but direct evidence of recursive feedback remains limited. Resource constraints also have conditional effects, stimulating bricolage and focused experimentation in some circumstances while inhibiting substantive change when shortages become severe. The review provides an integrative synthesis specific to SMEs and advances digital business model innovation research by explaining how digital pressures are translated into changes in value proposition, value creation and delivery, and value capture through organisational and relational mechanisms.
Bi Zhang, Nurul Atasha Jamaludin, Shanshan Yue et al.· Future Business Journal· 0 citations
Industrial symbiosis (IS) and digital industrial symbiosis (DIS) are widely advocated as essential strategies for furthering circular economy (CE) goals within the European Union; yet empirical evidence about the preparedness of small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) to use these methods is still scarce. This study investigates the organizational, technological, and perceptual aspects influencing SMEs’ preparedness to adopt IS and DIS, emphasizing digital maturity, perceived benefits, barriers, and the institutional support conditions. A convergent mixed-methods methodology was employed, combining qualitative thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with SMEs and intermediary organizations, alongside quantitative data from a structured survey conducted across various European countries. The study examined the relationships between adoption readiness and digital maturity, perceived benefits, barriers, and institutional support conditions, while qualitative insights offered further contextual comprehension of trust, governance, and implementation conditions. The findings indicate that digital maturity and perceived benefits are the primary determinants of adoption readiness, but perceived barriers and institutional support predominantly influence implementation feasibility rather than initial willingness. This study differentiates between motivational readiness and structural feasibility, thereby enhancing adoption models and offering insights for policymakers, intermediaries, and practitioners involved in the design of digital industrial symbiosis platforms and SME support instruments.
Valerij Dermol, Špela Dermol· Human Systems Management· 0 citations
Purpose: This paper develops a unified conceptual framework that bridges ten thematic domains of contemporary supply chain management in response to the fragmentation of existing scholarly frameworks.
Methodology: Drawing on a systematic review of Scopus-indexed scholarship published between 2018 and 2025, the paper employs the Contextual Innovation Performance Model (CIPM), originally developed by Sambiri (2022, 2024), as the theoretical architecture through which interdependencies among domains are examined.
Findings: The analysis reveals that resilience, sustainability, and digital innovation have ceased to operate as separate strategic agendas and have instead converged into a single, indivisible performance imperative.
Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The CIPM Supply Chain Management Framework provides a theoretically grounded and practically actionable integrative architecture for researchers and practitioners, generating four testable research propositions and offering guidance for organisations seeking to build supply chains capable of generating sustained competitive and social value under conditions of persistent uncertainty.
B. Sambiri, A. Baskakova, Ahmed Ashraf et al.· International journal of sup...· 0 citations
Asian firms increasingly face a dual strategic requirement: they must accelerate digital transformation while meeting rising environmental, social and governance (ESG) expectations. This paper develops the ESG-digital nexus as a strategic management framework explaining how digital capabilities can strengthen ESG performance and how ESG objectives can discipline digital investment toward long-term value creation. Using an integrative conceptual synthesis informed by the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities theory and selected Asian sustainability contexts, the paper reframes digital transformation and ESG integration as mutually reinforcing organisational capabilities rather than separate compliance or technology agendas. The framework identifies three mechanisms: digitally enabled ESG measurement, behavioural embedding through digital institutional behavioural design and stakeholder-facing transparency. The illustrative evidence and maturity matrix suggest that firms with high digital and ESG maturity are better positioned to convert sustainability commitments into operational routines, financial resilience and reputational advantage. The paper contributes a practical quadrant model for diagnosing organisational maturity and for guiding staged managerial action in Asian firms operating under tightening sustainability reporting regimes.
K. Tan· International Journal of Sci...· 0 citations
