Digital procurement practices in SMES: comparative cases of advanced and emerging economies

Jahedul Alam Bhuiyan 1, *, Bebe Asma 2 and Sabuj Chandra Bhowmik 3

1 Department of Information, Operations, and Technology Management, College of Business and Innovation, University of Toledo, USA.
2 Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Toledo, USA.
3 Department of Accounting and Information Systems, Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Trishal, Mymensingh – 2224, Bangladesh.
 
Review
International Journal of Science and Technology Research Archive, 2024, 06(02), 045–058.
Article DOI: 10.53771/ijstra.2024.6.2.0046
Publication history: 
Received on 05 February 2024; revised on 01 May 2024; accepted on 04 May 2024
 
Abstract: 
About 99 percent of American firms are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and more than 88 percent of people are employed in SMEs. However, most SMEs are not using supplier interactions in digital platforms which is a flexible IT infrastructure (software, hardware, and network) and a well-developed information management capability. Organizations can use digital procurement platforms to foster managerial improvisation and can leverage, depending on the type of unexpected event. If we look at the emerging economy, the percentage of SMEs of total business is almost the same as advanced economies, but their digitalization is much less than the advanced economy. It is obvious that digital procurement is now one of the most significant prerequisites to tackle the supply chain crisis that leads to gaining competitive advantages in the financial and non-financial perspective of a business. It is also true that lacking the proper understanding of digital transformation and organizational capabilities, many small and medium enterprises are facing enormous hardships to sustain. This study aims to examine the challenges and opportunities of SMEs with digital procurement. Based on the literature review, we present a research model of digital transformation which defines key variables. We also use case study instruments to target SMEs in different sectors in advanced (USA) and emerging economies (Bangladesh) for empirical investigation.

 

Keywords: 
Digital Transformation; Digital Procurement; Digital ecosystem; SMEs; Emerging Economies; Advanced Economies
 
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