Digital Marketing Adoption Framework for Small Businesses in Egypt: A Grounded Theory Approach

Although the adoption of digital marketing technologies for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) is an essential step in today’s digital disrupted markets, the literature is still lacking a practical framework to measure the degree of digital marketing technology adoption and its impact on business performance. Provided that there is a continuous economic development caused by MSMEs in Egypt, along with the emerging technology tools, it is essential to study their performance in the digital era. Also, limited research linked technology adoption with marketing management in specific. Based on distinctively advantaged access to the Egyptian entrepreneurship ecosystem, this study is exploratory in nature which seeks to contribute to the digital technology adoption literature by building on the gathered insights from the previous studies and literature review to develop a proper framework. Using a classical grounded theory approach, over nine months’ period, 10 Egyptian MSMEs’ marketing activities and performances have been continuously observed and their owners have been interviewed. Data were analyzed using themed analysis in which initial coding and then detailed themes were generated. The research is contributing to literature by introducing a new and dynamic digital marketing adoption model for MSMEs covering previous models’ flaws. The proposed model helps policymakers and MSMEs’ owners better evaluate the digital marketing technology impact on business performance, thus they can use it to evaluate the effectiveness of various technologies implementation.