Abstract
The 4th industrial revolution of cyber-physical technologies (4IR) intersecting digital technologies and entrepreneurship serves as an external stimulus in fostering a new method of venture creation transforming customers’ purchasing and consuming behavior. Whilst large corporations are taking the lead in leveraging on 4IR digital marketing (DM) for their marketing strategy, studies have shown that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are lacking behind. This study explores the conundrum using an exploratory sequential mixed method. Semi-structured interviews were carried out on a sample size of ten SME participants selected using non-probability purposive sampling and determined through attaining thematic saturation of discursive patterns. Scale development for quantitative instruments was performed using SPSS statistical software v22. A quantitative study was carried out on a sample size of 153 SME respondents. Analysis was undertaken using SPSS supported by paired-samples T-test. Kuskal-Wallis H test and Spearman’s rho correlation test due to the nonparametric nature of data distribution. The outcome reveals that although SMEs are increasingly reliant on DM for their marketing strategy, most of these SMEs are only willing to invest in building low-level DM capability citing a lack of financial budget, inadequate technology infrastructure to support such setup, cyber security issues and lack of DM knowledge. Financial budget and technology infrastructure are considered the most critical concerns by SMEs with low and moderate DM adoption. However, these concerns are less pronounced in SMEs with high DM adoption. Finally, the weak but significant correlation between SMEs’ DM adoption and customer responsiveness infers the significant role of 4IR technology as an enabler of digital marketing strategy that also depends on other critical contributing factors such as price and quality.
Keywords
- 4IR Search this journal for 4IR (opens in a new tab)
- Digital Marketing Search this journal for Digital Marketing (opens in a new tab)
- 4C’s Search this journal for 4C’s (opens in a new tab)
- SME Search this journal for SME (opens in a new tab)
- Exploratory Sequential Mixed Method Search this journal for Exploratory Sequential Mixed Method (opens in a new tab)
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Keywords
- 4IR Search this journal for 4IR (opens in a new tab)
- Digital Marketing Search this journal for Digital Marketing (opens in a new tab)
- 4C’s Search this journal for 4C’s (opens in a new tab)
- SME Search this journal for SME (opens in a new tab)
- Exploratory Sequential Mixed Method Search this journal for Exploratory Sequential Mixed Method (opens in a new tab)
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Vol. 15 No. 2(I)SI (2023)
Sustainable Competitive Advantages & Technological Advancements
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