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SMEs primarily as a means to strengthen business performance. Digital channels,
platform-based interaction and data-supported operations appear to help firms reach
customers more effectively and improve their competitive position in the market.
By contrast, the dimensions linked more closely to governance and sustainability
are slightly lower, though still positive. Improving transparency, governance quality and
customer service receives a score of 4.03, while saving resources, reducing paperwork
and minimizing waste is rated at 4.02. These results suggest that firms do recognize the
broader value of digital transformation beyond immediate financial returns. However,
those benefits are often indirect and may not yet be systematically planned or measured.
The lowest-rated item is supporting firms in monitoring social and environmental
goals, at 4.01. Although the score remains favorable, it indicates that this aspect is the
least clearly embedded in enterprise practice. In other words, many SMEs appear to use
digital transformation primarily to improve efficiency and competitiveness, while the use
of digital technologies as tools for managing social and environmental performance
remains limited.
This finding is highly consistent with the Triple Bottom Line perspective. The
empirical evidence suggests that digital transformation contributes most clearly to the
economic pillar of sustainability, while its contribution to the social and environmental
pillars is weaker and more indirect. It is also consistent with dynamic capability theory,
because the broader sustainability value of digital transformation depends not only on
adopting technology but on whether firms can strategically align digital initiatives with
longer-term developmental objectives.
The causal mechanism implied by the results is therefore more nuanced than a
simple statement that digital transformation improves sustainability. What the data
suggest is that digital transformation first enhances information flow, efficiency, control
and market reach. These improvements may then create enabling conditions for better
governance, more transparent stakeholder relations and more efficient resource use.
However, unless enterprises intentionally integrate sustainability goals into their digital
agenda, the social and environmental effects of digital transformation are likely to remain
secondary rather than central.
3.4. The role of adaptability and innovation in linking digital transformation with
sustainable development

Figure 4. SMEs’ evaluation of adaptability and innovation capacity

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