The Challenges Small to Medium-Sized Businesses Face Adopting Digital Supply Chain Technologies

This research examined the digital transformation of supply chains within small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), focusing on the challenges firms in traditional industries in the United States face in adopting these technologies to improve performance. Through a single case study qualitative approach, the study examined why some SMBs face these challenges, digital supply chain technologies affect business performance, and which technologies they contemplate to achieve their desired outcomes. Key findings indicate that most SMBs are between the digitization and digitalization phases of the digital transformation journey and are driven to adopt digital technologies that enable operational performance for scalable profitability. However, SMBs face significant financial and strategic constraints in technology adoption. They encounter substantial digital technology customization, integration, and usability hurdles. They succeed in adopting technologies by having a clear digital roadmap with dedicated, skilled support and workforce capability, organizational readiness, and resource availability, which are essential for digital technology adoption. The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by providing a framework for how SMBs can navigate digital supply chain transformation effectively through copiloting with capable support, identifying the important paradox the younger generation plays in organizational readiness, the need for modularized out-of-the-box smart technologies, and the opportunity for making menu-based technology solutions available. Future research should explore a quantitative study on the technologies that enable SMBs to achieve their performance objectives, the value of dedicated and skilled copilots, and the impact a younger generation with a greater affinity for technology can have on adoption success.