Digital Technologies as a Driver of Growth Aspirations? - an analysis of firms in Sweden

Do firms’ investments in digital technologies leave a footprint in their growth aspirations? We employ a unique survey of more than 4,000 firms in Sweden to investigate whether firms that invest in software development are more likely to aspire to grow. There is a positive relationship between software development and growth aspirations, and firms that develop software are particularly more likely to aspire to grow through internationalization, i.e. expanding on new markets within as well as outside the European Union. Even after controlling for innovation, the result shows that for a wide array of firms, software development has become an essential input in the pursuit of growth and internationalization.