Digitalization as a Strategic Tool for Entrepreneurship Survival and Crisis Management Lessons from Ukrainian MSEs Entrepreneurial Behaviour Series

Digitalization has recently emerged as a critical strategy for businesses to survive during disruptive times and crises. By utilizing digital tools, enterprises can enhance their communication capabilities, achieve cost savings, access new markets, implement data-driven and efficient decision-making processes, and maintain contact and alignment with key stakeholders regardless of market conditions. However, scant attention has been paid to how micro and small enterprises (MSEs) exploit digitalization to cope with recent crises. Digitalization as a Strategic Tool for Entrepreneurship Survival and Crisis Management: Lessons from Ukrainian MSEs investigates the impact of digital transformation on the survival of MSEs during times of crisis, guided by Ukraine as an emblematic empirical case study. The choice of Ukrainian MSEs as the research context is based on the prospect of obtaining valuable insights by examining micropreneurs during an ongoing crisis stemming from the 2022 military invasion by Russia and the residual effects of the pandemic. The ongoing socio-economic situation in Ukraine is being scrutinized in real-time, providing a distinctive opportunity to analyze its impact on entrepreneurs? behavior during their efforts to stabilize businesses and the predominant challenges that most MSEs confront. The book offers significant insights into the potential benefits of digitalizing business models, management capabilities of micropreneurs, and employing multi-stakeholder and omnichannel communication strategies, which micropreneurs can utilize. The Entrepreneurial Behaviour series is focused on expanding the scope of Entrepreneurial Behaviour theory and analysis and enriching practice by encouraging multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary approaches.

Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. Theoretical background Chapter 3. Research question and framework development Chapter 4. Methodology Chapter 5. Analysis and discussion Chapter 6. Theoretical, managerial, and policy implications Chapter 7. Limitations and future research Chapter 8. Conclusion

Professional and scholarly

Daria Holovko is a Data Management and IT Process Integration Consultant at KPGM, Milan, Italy, and an expert in Microsoft Dynamics 365 (ERP software suite). Lamberto Zollo is Associate Professor at the Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods of the University of Milan, Italy, where he teaches Digital Marketing and Innovation.