Small and Medium sized Businesses (SMBs) make up majority of employment in Africa (around 80%). Moreover, our data showed that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic spurred the growth in the adoption and use of communication and productivity tools by workers across Africa.
To enrich our understanding of the digital transformation that occurred, we conducted a qualitative study with 40 SMBs in Kenya from April to June 2021. The SMBs cut across Microsoft and non-Microsoft customers; physical workers and information workers; VSBs (very small businesses), SBs (small businesses), and MBs (medium businesses). A goal for this research area is to understand the digital transformation that SMBs in Africa go through in order so that we can play an important role in uncovering how to build solutions that better support the African business and African worker.
Several findings emerged around the social, technological, and cultural aspects of technology adoption among SMBs in Africa. For one, the digital transformation that occurred thanks to the pandemic is very specific - being reactive and opportunistic - but the start of a digital transformation journey for many SMBs. This presents an opportunity to understand what is missing in COVID-prompted digital transformation, and to consider how to support SMBs on their journey to becoming digitally empowered.
Secondly, the pandemic revealed the extent to which digital transformation for SMBs is a social and collective phenomenon that does not happen in isolation but instead involves the wider eco-system. SMBs in the study who prompted ecosystem digital transformation were part of larger conglomerates, with their own IT department, and so in this aspect acted more like larger enterprises. When thinking of digital transformation more broadly, whether within or outside of the pandemic, it is important to take an ecosystem perspective.