Original title: Selective Digital Adaptation and Business Resilience: A Longitudinal Study of Apparel SMEs in China
Researchers followed apparel shops in less-developed regions of China over two and a half years. Earlier, many shops responded passively to e-commerce because they lacked resources and knowledge. Later, they selectively used tools they could access, such as social media and digital payments, while changing what they sold and who they aimed to serve. They built businesses that combined physical shops with digital tools, while keeping personal service and customers' ability to examine products. Owners reported steadier customers and revenue after 2017, but some shops still did not survive.
Imagine running a small kitchen with limited money and time. You cannot buy every new appliance, so you choose the few that help most while keeping the dishes people already come for. In this paper, the kitchen's limited resources match small shops' constraints, and choosing useful appliances matches adopting selected digital tools while preserving the strengths of an in-person shop.
Small shops often lack the money and expertise to adopt every new technology. This study shows how selected tools, such as social media and digital payments, can sit alongside personal service and help businesses adjust, though they do not guarantee survival.
The study focuses on apparel businesses in less-developed regions of China and uses qualitative observations, interviews, and retrospective accounts. It reports participants' accounts of steadier customer and revenue trajectories after 2017, but does not establish that digital adaptation caused those changes or that it ensures survival.
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Selective Digital Adaptation and Business Resilience: A Longitudinal Study of Apparel SMEs in China — Sujun Liu, Chunmin Lang — Businesses — doi:10.3390/businesses6040053
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.