Digital transformation through the lens of digital data handling: an exploratory analysis of agri-food SMEs

This study aims to explore digital transformation and the level of sophistication in the digital data handling strategy by agri-food small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). By developing an exploratory multiple-case study that involves fourteen food processing SMEs, this paper identifies a data processing flow made up of the following phases: data generation, data acquisition, data storage, data analysis, and data exploitation. In addition, it shows how data processing flow may occur in a number of ways, thereby classifying the agri-food SMEs’ digital transformation as paper master, digital wannabe, and digital champion. Hence, the article contributes to providing the conceptualization of a data processing flow, which includes the progressive stages in data management identified across firms by proposing a data handling strategy framework. Such a framework offers a snapshot of firms at various levels of digitization in their handling of various kinds of data, thus clarifying how the strategies of data processing flow occur.