Digital transformation in small businesses in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic: a literature review

Abstract

This article deals with a systematic review of the literature regarding the adoption of digital technologies and process innovation, whose objective is to investigate the occurrence of digital transformation in small businesses, accelerated from the restrictions brought to economic activity by the Covid19 pandemic. The survey of articles was carried out in three databases: Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus. A significant presence of exploratory studies and a large amount of research was identified that show the presence of transformation in companies and in consumer behavior, however, the number of studies that investigate this digital transformation in small businesses is still small. The research was able to identify evidence of incipient digital transformation in the selected articles. Empirically, without adequate planning, changes in the marketing of products through social networks and messaging applications made it possible for small businesses to survive with the emergence of the pandemic. For this reason, it is proposed to continue the studies, focusing on digitization in small businesses driven by the pandemic.