Dr. Mane Beglaryan and MBA Alumnae Publish in JSTPM

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YEREVAN, Armenia — The American University of Armenia (AUA) College of Business and Economics is pleased to announce that Associate Professor Dr. Mane Beglaryan, together with Master of Business Administration graduates Dr. Anush Drampyan (MBA ’16) and Parandzem Sargsyan (MBA ’18), published an article titled “The impact of digitalization on promoting business during crisis: evidence from Armenian SMEs” in the Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management. 

To be competitive, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are forced to develop new business strategies involving the utilization of e-business-enabling information technologies. The perceived benefits of digitalization provide SMEs with the opportunities to expand to international markets and facilitate knowledge acquisition, as well as wider and more intimate interaction with customers, business partners, investors, and local authorities; these, in turn, lead to sustainable competitive advantages.    

Digitalization is also seen as an important tool to deal with crises. It is no surprise that any economic crisis with high volatility intensifies the need for digitalization and accelerates the process of adoption of digital tools for SMEs. Along with other benefits such as improved performance, innovation enablement, enhanced productivity, and lower costs, digitalization helps companies maintain business continuity by enabling remote working practices and a shift to e-commerce. 

“Understanding how SMEs leverage digitalization during major crisis situations, especially in the specific context of a developing country like Armenia, was a strategic question that motivated our current empirical research. We studied how the expectations of Armenian SMEs with respect to digitalization change depending on their size, economic sector, and the degree to which they were impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. We also explored the role of digitalization in overcoming the repercussions of the COVID-19 crisis. In particular, we examined whether the SMEs that provided online services before the crisis and were able to convert their business model to an e-business model were less affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,” noted Dr. Drampyan. 

The AUA research team charted an interesting paradigm, drawing upon digitalization and organizational agility concepts. “As a next-generation enabling technology, digitalization is one of the dimensions for the enhancement of enterprise agility. In studying the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on business continuity, it becomes clear that companies that successfully dealt with the crisis implemented agile business practices and used digital technologies as key enablers. Focusing on the Armenian context during the pandemic, SMEs realized that they could boost resilience and use the opportunity brought by the crisis to increase revenues by making a digital transition and a shift to e-commerce,” said Dr. Beglaryan. 

Sargsyan added: “The results of our analysis showed that the economic sector plays a significant role in forming the expectations of firms on the positive impact of digitalization, while the company size does not affect them. We found that the provision of online services before the pandemic did not help Armenian SMEs be less affected by the crisis. Furthermore, the perception of whether digitalization facilitated innovative processes, products, and services did not depend on the degree to which a company was affected by COVID-19. Finally, our findings indicate that the more agile companies, which had the ability to convert their business model into an e-business model, were less affected by the crisis.”  

“Elaborating on our findings, since many SMEs lack sufficient funds to enhance employee learning and development, the reluctance of many managers to engage in a higher level of digital adoption can be explained due to reliance on existing well-established rules, norms, and predictable business profitability, compared with experiments that may pose threats to their established routine. Such training programs should emphasize not only digital competence skill-building, but also the ability to manage the ‘strategic paradox’ and new ways of working. Since a large share of SME managers face the tension of balancing existing performance with new learning, triggering significant challenges for many, an adequate amount of time and customized training programs need to be accounted for in order to produce progressive change and sustained behavioral change,” concluded Dr. Beglaryan. 

The paper was presented at EURAM 2022, ZHAW School of Management and Law (SW) in Winterthur, Switzerland. This marks the team’s third successful collaboration. Dr. Beglaryan, Dr. Drampyan, and Sargsyan thank their anonymous reviewers and the JSTPM editor for a comprehensive review process that landed the two-year effort in such a premier journal and Emerald publication. The paper abstract can be read at the following link: “The impact of digitalization on promoting business during crisis: evidence from Armenian SMEs.”

Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia, affiliated with the University of California, and accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission in the United States. AUA provides local and international students with Western-style education through top-quality undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs, promotes research and innovation, encourages civic engagement and community service, and fosters democratic values.