International opportunity recognition in an uncertain environment: the role of digital capabilities and organizational agility in SMEs

This article aims to shed light on the process of international opportunity recognition among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during the Covid-19 pandemic. Specifically, the main goal of this research is to study the impact of both digital capabilities and organizational agility on international opportunities identification, as well as the moderating role of environmental uncertainty on these relationships. Data were collected from a sample of 146 Tunisian internationalized SMEs and analyzed using a structural equation model approach. The results highlight that digital capabilities and organizational agility positively affect international opportunity identification. We also demonstrate that an uncertain environment can weaken the relationship between digital capabilities and opportunity recognition. Thus, we contribute to the literature on the SME internationalization by proposing a model that takes into account several key factors in the detection of international opportunities. Our study offers new managerial implications to support the adoption of a coupling between digital capabilities and agile capabilities in order to determine and promote the detection of international opportunities in SMEs.