Digital Transition and Sustainability in SMES: A Structured Literature Review

Sustainability and Digital transition (DT) are relevant issues in literature on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The theoretical and practical implications between these processes have been explored in literature; however, a large part of this literature focuses more on larger companies and it is fragmented into different scientific domains. This situation affects the implementation of sustainability through DT within SMEs. To fill this gap, addressing new impactful research and useful managerial approaches, this paper aims to improve our understanding of this process in SMEs f ocusi ng sustainability, through structured literature review(SLR) methodology [26]. We have analyzed a final sample of 51 papers published between 2016 and May 2024, gathering data by Scopus database, performing bibliometric and meta-analyses, and applying RStudio and NVivo software. Research on digital transformation and sustainability in SMEs has grown but the relationship between digital transformation and sustainability is often seen as conflicting. We provide future research paths to address these gaps, to also promote the social dimension of sustainability and develop effective managerial approaches.