Digitalisation, resilience, and sustainable competitiveness of SMEs during crisis periods: Evidence from Czech enterprises

Recurrent crises — the COVID-19 pandemic followed by energy and inflationary shocks — have exposed the vulnerability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and renewed interest in digitalisation as a resilience mechanism. This study examines whether digital maturity differentiates the competitive positioning of Czech SMEs before and during the COVID-19 crisis. Using cross-sectional survey data from 251 enterprises collected in cooperation with the Czech Chamber of Commerce in the autumn of 2021, with retrospective items covering the pre-pandemic period and the pandemic period, the analysis combines correlation screening, sliced inverse regression (SIR) to harmonise questionnaire items into composite indicators, K-means clustering to identify enterprise typologies, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to profile the resulting clusters. Before the crisis, cluster membership was defined primarily by customer-base composition and the degree of digital maturity, and was associated with the firm's business segment. During the crisis, the configuration of sales channels (brick-and-mortar versus e-commerce) became the dominant differentiating dimension, while business-to-consumer orientation and regional location were significantly associated with cluster membership. The partial convergence of enterprise typologies during the crisis suggests a reduction in size- and sector-related disparities. The findings indicate that embedded digital capabilities are associated with operational continuity, but that the salient dimensions of competitiveness shift across crisis stages, with implications for SME managers and for regional digital-support policy in Central and Eastern Europe.