Adapting Emerging Digital Communication Technologies for Resilience: Evidence from Nigerian SMEs

Ashiru, Folajimi; Nakpodia, Franklin; You, Jacqueline

doi:10.1007/s10479-022-05049-9

Adapting Emerging Digital Communication Technologies for Resilience: Evidence from Nigerian SMEs

Ashiru, Folajimi; Nakpodia, Franklin; You, Jacqueline

Authors

Folajimi Ashiru

Dr Franklin Nakpodia franklin.nakpodia@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Jacqueline You

Abstract

Drawing on the Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DOI), this study explores how emerging digital communication technologies (EDCT) affected SMEs’ resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. We employed an inductive and qualitative approach to investigate 42 SME operators in a weak institutional developing country - Nigeria. Our findings show that EDCT played a critical role in activating SMEs’ resilience during the crisis through four drivers: facilitating connections and bonding with staff, clients, and suppliers; enabling collaborations; activating process diversification; and enhancing supply chain flexibility. Furthermore, we highlight the distinct ability of Nigerian SMEs to buffer themselves against misinformation arising from the use of EDCT. This study sheds light on an EDCT Diffusion Model for resilience.

Citation

Ashiru, F., Nakpodia, F., & You, J. (2023). Adapting Emerging Digital Communication Technologies for Resilience: Evidence from Nigerian SMEs. Annals of Operations Research, 327, 795–823. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-022-05049-9

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Oct 25, 2022
Online Publication Date	Nov 23, 2022
Publication Date	2023-08
Deposit Date	Oct 26, 2022
Publicly Available Date	Dec 21, 2022
Journal	Annals of Operations Research
Print ISSN	0254-5330
Electronic ISSN	1572-9338
Publisher	Springer
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	327
Pages	795–823
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-022-05049-9
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1187471

Files

Published Journal Article (Online first) (944 Kb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Online first This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.