Empowering MSMEs Through Managerial Work Engagement in the Digital Economy: A Job Demands-Resources Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55016/2swrpe77Abstract
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are central to employment, innovation and
inclusive growth across Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies, yet their digital
transformation remains uneven amid increasing technological complexity and global uncertainty.
While prior research has primarily focused on employees or technological adoption, the role of
managers, who orchestrate and sustain digital initiatives, remains under-explored. This paper
develops a conceptual framework to explain how managerial work engagement enables effective
digital transformation and performance in SMEs.
Drawing on the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, digital transformation is conceptualized
as a set of managerial tasks shaped by emerging job demands (e.g., sustained attention, timely
responsiveness and cognitive overload), job resources (e.g., big data, artificial intelligence and
automation) and personal resources (e.g., technological reflectiveness and individual ambidexterity).
The study advances four novel research propositions linking these digital job characteristics to
managers’ work engagement and, subsequently, to task performance in digital adoption and
digital business-model innovation. It positions work engagement as a central mechanism through
which managers translate digital resources into organizational outcomes. By integrating insights
from organizational behaviour, strategic management and digital transformation, this paper
contributes a manager-centred and human-centred perspective on SME digitalization. It offers
a foundation for future empirical research and provides practical implications for policymakers
and organizations seeking to foster inclusive and sustainable digital transformation.
The contribution is deliberately conceptual: the paper develops a theoretical framework and a set
of testable propositions rather than empirical findings, and it identifies the empirical validation of
these propositions as a priority for future research.
Future studies can test and refine the proposals across different SME contexts, sectors and APEC
economies using quantitative, qualitative and mixed-method approaches. The framework allows
researchers to study how managers’ engagement with their work contributes to digital adoption
and business-model innovation, and to the long-term sustainability of SMEs that are embracing a
digital transformation.
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