The Digital Shift in Moroccan SMEs: Navigating Between Digitization, Digitalization, and Digital Transformation

Abstract

This article highlights the difference between digitization, digitization and digital transformation of Moroccan small and medium-sized enterprises By conducting an in-depth survey of scientific publications and various official documents, this study highlights a serious lack of awareness of these notions among Moroccan SMEs. This is wrong on many levels and some organizations mistake simple digital initiatives like document scanning or social media use for some measure of overall digital transformation and miss the opportunity to fully embrace measurable, meaningful and sustainable digital evolution.

The findings emphasize the disembodied and superficial condition of Moroccan SMEs' digital adoption based on misconceptions, resource limitations, and the dearth of technological expertise. This misalignment (of consumable data) leads to missed innovation and eventually lower competitiveness and inefficiency, throughout the organizational processes. By contrasting them with the relative global best practices and academic definitions, the study offers a broad spectrum regarding the digital readiness of the Moroccan SMEs as well as constraints hindering their digital transformation.

Our findings contribute to the evolving, inter-cycle literature of SME digital transformation in developing economies, as well as broadening the conceptual understanding of the economic and organizational consequences of digital illusions. Its goal is to help raise the awareness of the policy-makers and professionals on the urgent relevance of targeted intervention to bridge these gaps so that Moroccan SMEs can thrive in an increasingly digital global market.