Digital Innovations and Organizational Resilience: The Case of SMEs in Ghana

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between digital innovation practices and organizational resilience among Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana. It also explored the role of organizational leadership as a moderating variable on the relationship between digital innovation practices and organizational resilience. Understanding the most adopted digital innovation practices (data analytics, social media, automation and e-commerce) by SMEs in Ghana can help these firms channel their limited resources toward building resilient organizations. Nevertheless, few studies have been undertaken on the most adopted digital innovation practices among Ghanaian SMEs and their direct impact on organizational resilience. As a result, the study employed Dynamic Capabilities Theory to fill this gap. Using a quantitative research approach and survey data from SMEs, 400 questionnaires were distributed to 200 SMEs in Greater Accra. The analysis was conducted on 309 valid responses retrieved from the SMEs using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings indicated that data analytics had a significant influence on capital resilience but no significant influence on learning or relationship resilience. E-commerce had a significant influence on relationship resilience but no significant effect on capital or learning resilience. Automation showed no significant influence on any of the resilience dimensions. Additionally, organizational leadership served as a moderator only between e commerce and learning resilience but did not moderate the relationship between the other digital innovation practices and the organizational resilience variables. However, social media emerged as the most commonly adopted digital innovation practice among Ghanaian SMEs.