Abstract: In recent years, the adoption of digital technology has been playing a vital role for firms to develop against the backdrop of digitalization. Considering the importance of digital technology, the Chinese government has enacted many policies aimed at promoting the rapid growth of the use of digital technology. However, few scholars have examined the influence of the external environment on the adoption of digital technology for SMEs in China. For this purpose, an empirical model was developed using the Technology Organization Environment (TOE) framework. Data collected from 207 digital SMEs was analyzed by utilizing the structural equation modelling. Our results first indicated that two environmental predictors including government policy and competitor pressure have an indirect effect on the adoption. At the same time, we also found that the influence of perceived benefits on the adoption turned out to be insignificant. This study contributes greatly by empirically proposing two significant environmental factors which are critical for digital SMEs in China. Further, this research also extends the TOE framework by introducing two mediating variables, which explain how the path of government policy and competitor pressure to adoption works.

摘要： 数字技术对企业发展至关重要。中小型企业是我国经济发展的重要贡献者，相较于大型企业，其对外部环境更为敏感，但现有研究却未解释外部环境影响中小型企业采用数字技术的作用机制。为此，研究基于技术-企业-环境（TOE）框架理论，构建了结构方程模型，并利用207家中国中小型企业的数据对模型进行了实证检验。结果表明，政府政策和竞争压力两个外部环境变量通过技术因素对中国中小型企业采用数字技术产生间接影响；企业层面的感知利得对中小型企业采用数字技术的影响并不显著。研究结论可解释外部环境影响中小型企业采用数字技术的路径，对中国中小型企业数字化转型具有启示意义；同时，结果证实了数字能力和数字兼容性两个技术因素在外部环境与中小型企业采用数字技术间起到的中介作用，可对现有TOE框架理论形成补充与完善。