Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2027

Digital transformation is transforming how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the restaurant sector create, deliver and capture value, but the strategic value of e-commerce and direct-to-consumer (D2C) models in Scotland is still uneven and poorly explored. This developmental research paper explores the potential for entrepreneurial value creation among Scottish restaurant SMEs using digitally enabled channels, while addressing the challenges of place-based market contexts, tourism pressures, changing customer behaviours, resource constraints and platform dependency. The study moves beyond a narrow technology-adoption perspective by conceptualising digital transformation as a strategic, behavioural, and entrepreneurial process. It integrates the Dynamic Capabilities Framework, especially sensing, seizing and transforming, with the Behavioural Theory of the Firm in order to provide insights into how restaurant SMEs can sense, seize and transform digital opportunities and why owner-managers may delay, restrict or redirect the investment of digital opportunities under uncertainty. The conceptual model is complemented by entrepreneurship perspectives such as opportunity recognition, entrepreneurial orientation, effectuation and bricolage. The proposed empirical approach is a multiple-case design, with some 20 to 25 restaurant SMEs from urban, rural and island regions across Scotland. Data will be generated primarily through semi-structured interviews with owner-managers and supported, where feasible, by interviews with employees or digital-support actors and analysis of digital artefacts such as websites, online ordering systems, social media selling, loyalty schemes, and D2C offers. Reflexive thematic analysis and theory-informed coding will be employed to identify digital practices, barriers, decision processes and value outcomes. The study is expected to make a positive contribution to digital entrepreneurship and SME transformation research, demonstrating how mature restaurant businesses add value through digitally enabled business model adaptation, whilst also providing tangible lessons for restaurant business owners, business advisers, and policy makers interested in finding a context-sensitive approach to digitalisation in Scotland.

I am a PhD researcher in Business and Management at the University of Greater Manchester, UK, with an MSc in Business Data Analytics from Bangor University and a UGC NET Junior Research Fellowship (JRF). My doctoral research focuses on digitally driven value creation in Scotland’s restaurant SMEs, with particular emphasis on e-commerce, direct-to-consumer business models, digital transformation and entrepreneurial value creation.

My research interests include digital innovation, entrepreneurship, SME digitalisation, technology adoption, business model innovation and business analytics. I have actively participated in academic conferences and research-development activities in the UK and internationally. Recently, I presented my research at San Diego State University in the United States, where I was also awarded a Best Presenter Certificate.

I am particularly interested in understanding how digital technologies and emerging business models enable SMEs to adapt, innovate and create value in changing business environments.