Digital Platform Adoption and Cross-Border Agility: A Study of Export-Oriented SMEs in Post-Pandemic Latin America

• Abey Litty

  Texas University

  Author

The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed an unprecedented acceleration in digital tool adoption among Latin American micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), with over 75% of firms in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico initiating online commercial transactions during the crisis . Yet the relationship between specific digital platform adoption patterns and cross-border operational agility remains undertheorized in post-pandemic export contexts. This study addresses this gap by developing and empirically validating a predictive framework linking digital platform adoption to export agility among export-oriented SMEs in four Latin American economies. Using survey data from 2,048 MSMEs collected by the International Chamber of Commerce in 2023, we employ partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test a model integrating digital platform adoption, organizational agility, and export performance. The framework achieves 89.4% classification accuracy in predicting high-agility exporters, with digital marketing capability (β = 0.412, p < 0.001) and multi-platform integration (β = 0.387, p < 0.001) emerging as dominant predictors. The findings demonstrate that platform breadth—not merely platform use—distinguishes agile cross-border operators from domestically constrained peers. This research contributes a validated diagnostic instrument for export promotion agencies and offers theoretical refinement of dynamic capabilities in resource-constrained internationalization contexts.

• PDF

Copyright (c) 2026 Abey Litty (Author)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.