Cloud-Enabled Digital Transformation Readiness of SMEs in Central India: A Conceptual Framework and Proposed Validation Model

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are expected to combine cloud technologies with wider digital transformation, yet access to cloud services does not by itself make a firm ready to transform. Indian research has mainly examined the determinants of cloud adoption, while recent international work stresses that digital transformation readiness is multidimensional and organisational. Few studies link cloud-enabled capability with readiness for wider transformation at regional SME level. This paper develops a conceptual framework, grounded in the technology–organisation–environment (TOE) framework and dynamic capabilities theory, for SMEs in Central India (Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh). The framework proposes that eight organisational capabilities (technological readiness, digital workforce capability, leadership and strategic alignment, process readiness, digital culture, security and trust, financial readiness and external support) shape cloud-enabled readiness, which in turn shapes digital transformation readiness and carries part of the effect of the capabilities. Ten hypotheses, a 39-item five-point Likert instrument and a PLS-SEM validation plan covering mediation and multi-group analysis are presented. The paper is a conceptual and methodological contribution: no empirical results are reported, and the instrument is to be validated through a pilot study and a survey of 300–500 SMEs. The framework gives managers, cloud providers, training institutions and policymakers a structured way to judge whether SMEs are ready to move from cloud adoption to broader transformation.