A digital business transformation maturity model for micro enterprises in developing countries

To survive and thrive in highly competitive environments, micro-enterprises, like all businesses, need to adapt to changing market conditions. In today's digital age, digital transformation can help micro-enterprises improve their efficiency, customer experience, and decision-making to remain competitive and meet consumer demands. Therefore, this study seeks to establish a micro enterprise-specific digital transformation maturity model based on prior literature and interviews with 12 micro enterprise business owners. The resulting model has four dimensions: strategy, process, technology, and people. Each dimension consists of four maturity levels comprised of significant, specific characteristics. Five specialists from diverse fields reviewed and modified the proposed model. For model evaluation, we performed data analytics using the K-means clustering algorithm on online questionnaire data. The final maturity model fits well with the needs of the micro-enterprises under investigation and can be used as a guide by other micro and small businesses in developing countries.