Transformations  in
Business & Economics

EFFECTS OF EMPLOYEES’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FACTORS ON SMES’ SUSTAINABILITY AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE²
Ivan Mihajlovic, Vesna Spasojevic Brkic, Martina Perisic, Isidora Milosevic, Sanela Arsic

ABSTRACT: Digital transformation is the most frequently analysed from the technological perspective. The following research investigates the social elements of organisational digital transformation, by placing employees in SMEs in focus. After extensive literature review the research questions and related hypotheses were defined. To test the proposed hypotheses, a questionnaire was developed, and 635 responses were received from individual owners, managers, and employees in organizations from Serbia, Bulgaria, and Visegrad Four countries (V4). A structural equation model has been used to explore the mediating effect on the relationship between the employee’s attitudes and their perceived opinions on the organisations’ sustainability and financial performance. All relationships within stated hypotheses were confirmed. It was revealed that employees’ positive attitude towards digitalisation is improving their self-efficacy in the digitalized work environment and, at the same time, decreasing their level of anxiety regarding such workplaces. Increased self-efficiency and lower anxiety strengthen the organization’s sustainability, which, in turn, positively influences financial performance. According to the obtained results, from the group of questions describing the attitude of the respondents towards the digitalisation of their workplaces, it was revealed that most of the respondents consider that the digital transformation of their firms is a great idea in general (with a mean value of 3.883 on a scale of 5). Despite the lower mean value of 3.321, a large majority of them indicated that working in a digitalised environment is exciting. When it comes to self-efficacy in a digitalised work environment, most respondents advise that they need support and adequate task time available when completing their tasks. Importantly, the support they would find beneficial is someone they can contact if they require assistance and/or a help assistant built into the application. Regarding the anxiety resulting from the digital transformation of their working environment, it can be determined that most of the respondents do not experience a high level of it, considering the low mean values ranging from 1.869 to 1.937, on a scale of 5.

KEYWORDS:  digitalisation, anxiety, self-efficacy, sustainability, financial performance, SMEs.

JEL classification:  L26, M14, O33.

²Acknowledgments:  This research is supported by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia, #GRANT No. 5151, Support Systems for Smart, Ergonomic and Sustainable Mining Machinery Workplaces - SmartMiner and by the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation of the Republic of Serbia under the Agreement No. 451-03-137/2025-03/ 200105 and Eureka project No. 20495 - SMARTMEN.