Digital Literacy in the Context of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs): A Performance Dynamics

Abstract

The rapid technological change and the need for businesses especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to follow up this change necessitated this study to examine the relationship existing between digital literacy and the performance of SMEs in Southeast Nigeria as a broad objective. The study was anchored on the Diffusion of Innovation Theory. The population of the study was 1321 SMEs, and the sample size was 289. A structured questionnaire was the instrument for data collection, and it was subjected to both validity and reliability tests. Data were analyzed using a combination of descriptive and inferential statistics and the hypothesis was tested at a 5% level of significance. The findings revealed that there was a statistically significant positive relationship exists between social media engagement and operational efficiency in SMEs in Southeast Nigeria and that a 61% change in the dependent variable is as a result of changes in the independent variables (R = .778, R-Square = .605, F statistics = 371.545, P-value < .05). The study concluded that digital literacy has a statistically significant relationship with performance of SMEs in Southeast Nigeria. Therefore, it was recommended among others that business owners/managers should deploy every means necessary to see that their businesses operate to a certain level of digital literacy to prevent cyber-attacks and create a free workflow in the business.