Guidelines to align digital strategy with business strategy in a manufacturing SME

Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to provide guidelines on how to align the business strategy and digital strategy in small and medium manufacturing enterprises. The research design includes a systematic-narrative literature review in which the data was collected through systematic and narrative examination followed by a qualitative analysis to identify themes and patterns. The data was then synthesised to present the results. To get the two strategies aligned, ten key processes, referred to in the study as direct-action points, have been identified. Few supporting points are presented in addition to the primary ones because they do not directly contribute to the alignment. An assessment of the company, businessperformance and value chain; the selection of appropriate solutions; the creation of a project proposal; the division of projects into modules; the setting of short-, medium-, and long-term goals; the choice of the degree of centralisation of the changes; the creation of a diverse team; the trackingand measuring of progress; the implementation of change management mechanisms, and management support are the processes that are involved. These aid in identifying and implementing the modifications the business needs to make, which may be related to a variety of things, including but not limited to customers, marketing, suppliers, logistics, and production. As validation of the study was outside the purview of this thesis, to externally validate this study, future work would involve interviewing executives of small and medium manufacturing enterprises. Prior research has noted the significance of business and digital strategy alignment, but it has not been explored how small and medium manufacturing firms might achieve this. This study tries to close this gap and could contribute to the possible growth of SMEs. Due to the fact that SMEs employ millions of people, their expansion promotes social and economic sustainability and boosts countries’ productivity.