Digital Transformation of Small Tech Reselling Firms : A Multiple Case Study in Portugal

In today’s global society, organizations are facing the challenge of ever-increasing customer demands as a consequence of benefits posed by digital technology. Not only has it led to a market of fierce competition and the inevitable pursuit for competitive advantages, but it also has required actors to explore and exploit the agile development of digitization. Organizational initiatives to harvest the benefits of digital technology and address the challenges have been referred to as “Digital Transformation”. The concept is running rampant through all industries and sectors, and no firm is any longer immune to its impacts. In the context of small and medium-sized enterprises, they are commonly referred to as being in a predicament of inadequate resources and limited capabilities to digitally transform. This study aims to shed light on how leaders of small enterprises, with their current conditions of digital transformation, can address key challenges through the use of digital transformation strategies. More specifically, a multiple case study was conducted based on the small tech reselling market of Portugal. Both leaders and employees were interviewed and asked about their current challenges, what efforts are made to digitally transform the companies, and how the leadership contribute to that end. From this, the paper suggests ways of managing these challenges and at the same time incubate digital transformation through assessment and measurement models