Turning the tide: digital resource orchestration for SME turnaround

Purpose Declining small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face survival-threatening vulnerability, yet limited research explains how digital resources are orchestrated for recovery. Drawing on resource orchestration theory (ROT), this study examines how SMEs reconfigure digital resources for turnaround. Design/methodology/approach We adopt an abductive, qualitative multiple-case design based on semi-structured inter-views with managers of 25 UK SMEs that successfully recovered from decline. Findings SME turnaround is driven not by adopting digital tools, but by orchestrating them effectively. This study proposes a digital resource orchestration (DRO) framework comprising four interdependent approaches: digital infrastructure orchestration (DIO), digital finance orchestration, digital customer orchestration and digital offer orchestration, enacted through ROT processes. Within structuring, SMEs reconfigure resources through selective acquisition, accumulation and divestment. A novel subprocess, adaptive investment and cash preservation, captures how firms invest in digital resources while preserving liquidity. Bundling departs from stabilising logic, prioritising integration and optimisation before digitally enabled enriching and data-driven pioneering. Leveraging remains aligned with mobilising, coordinating and deploying but operates iteratively through data-informed and digitally enabled processes. Across all processes, DIO functions as a synchronising mechanism, aligning orchestration activities and enabling cross-functional recovery. Originality/value This study extends ROT by specifying how its processes are enacted through digital resources under turnaround conditions, identifying novel digital-specific sub-processes and mechanisms. It develops a DRO framework and theorises DIO as a distinct synchronising mechanism. As a secondary implication, the study suggests that digital resilience may emerge from continuous DRO rather than as a pre-existing capability.