Investigating The Influence of Digital Transformation, Budgeting and Budgetary Control on The Financial Performance of SMEs: A Critical Review

This critical review evaluates the study by Ebhota et al. (2024) concerning the impact of digital transformation (DGT), big data analytics (BDA), customer experience (CUE), and budgeting and budgetary control (BBC) on the financial performance (FFP) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets. Employing a critical literature review methodology, this paper assesses the original study's theoretical foundations, methodological rigor, and empirical claims. The analysis confirms that grounding the research in Dynamic Capability Theory effectively frames digital transformation as an evolving operational asset rather than a static IT expenditure. Furthermore, the underlying statistical models robustly validate that DGT, BDA, and CUE significantly enhance budgetary controls and financial performance. However, this critical review identifies notable limitations in the original manuscript, including a pronounced demographic sample bias toward highly digitized technology and financial sectors (67%), which limits generalizability to traditional resource-heavy industries, alongside significant typographical and statistical reporting errors in the text. Despite these flaws, the reviewed study offers a highly relevant, empirically backed framework demonstrating how modern SMEs must integrate digital capabilities with financial discipline to achieve sustainable growth