Technology Adaption As Survival Strategy For Small And Medium Enterprises During COVID-19

Abstract Globally, business and operational capabilities of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been enormously affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, forcing many to use technology and innovation rather than the more traditional methods of operations. Although we do not yet know to the extent to which Oman’s SMEs have adopted these technological transformations, we investigate this, and assess the impact of it, in this study. We empirically examine how Covid-19 accelerated technology use in the SMEs in Oman and test nine hypotheses applying paired t-test and Pearson correlation. The results show strong correlations between technology use before and during Covid-19 (r = .823, p < 0.01); technology use during Covid-19 and in future (r = .659, p < 0.01); and technology use before Covid-19 and in future (r = .612, p < 0.01). We conclude that this use of technology has been a survival strategy during the pandemic and that highly digitized SMEs are more likely to adopt Industry 4.0 technology.