Uncovering Patterns in Sustainable Digital Transformation of SMEs in an Emerging Market

Facing many challenges and the pressure to achieve sustainable development through digitalization, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) should increase their consumption of digital technologies. SMEs are part of the engine of emerging economies, making a significant contribution to economic development. Using Rossmann’s Digital Transformation Maturity Index and a survey-based dataset, the purpose of this paper is to uncover key associations between different dimensions that define digital transformation. Through association rules mining (ARM), our results show that even when resources are constrained, SMEs in central Romania—Transylvania—make efforts to increase human resources competencies to drive digital transformation. Furthermore, we identified that the firms are in a transition stage in terms of digital transformation. Thus, although digital initiatives are considered at the firm level, they are not fully integrated into leadership and human resources.