SMEs Talk—Startups Walk: How Startups Can Benefit from the Use of a Digital Maturity Model for SMEs as Part of Digital Transformation?

Purpose—While digital transformation has been widely implemented in large corporations, there is a big potential for startups and SMEs that are lagging behind in utilizing this opportunity. This chapter aims to raise awareness among startups and SMEs about digital transformation by developing a digital maturity model adopted, especially for international distributed work. The model serves as a framework for startups and SMEs to understand which dimensions influence and are important for digital transformation, and what specific questions are relevant for each of the dimensions. Design/methodology/approach—The research followed the Design Science Research with explorative interviews of two CEOs and development of case studies of companies currently undergoing the digital transformation process to get a deeper understanding of the different dimensions and which dimensions really matter. The artifacts are the dimensions that have a direct impact on the successful implementation of digital transformation, including a sample report of the digital maturity to position a company’s digital transformation against a baseline. Those dimensions were identified and chosen based on the review of 27 existing digital maturity models. Findings—The perception, that digital transformation is all about technology, has been disproved. Seven dimensions identified were (a) Culture and Leadership, (b) Digital Technologies, (c) Organization and Processes, (d) Employees and Digital Skills, (e) Customers, (f) Products and Innovation, and (g) Digital Strategy. Once a digital strategy is defined, a company can then focus on either internal or external environment. Culture and leadership need to be defined top-down as a base for driving change. Digital technologies are enablers, not drivers. Business implications—The use of a digital maturity model raises companies’ awareness about the current digital transformation phase and helps to understand, kick-off and accelerate their digital transformation to realize the aspired situation. While SMEs need to carefully plan and transform all aspects of a running company to benefit from digital opportunities, startups can launch digitally right from the start. Originality/value—Startups and internationally active SMEs can use the maturity model for a self-assessment as a first step to understand key dimensions to build a digital strategy and continuously work on improving maturity level as well as sustainability. Researchers in other countries can use the maturity model for classification and conduct a survey for comparative analysis among countries and different industries in different countries.