The Influence of COVID-19 on the Adoption of Disruptive Technologies in SMEs Practices: UAE Context

Abstract

Abstract Disruptive technologies (DTs) becoming pivotal issues towards successful business innovation strategies. DTs are the emerging technologies that result due to change in the cost of how we access products and services. DTs offer small and medium enterprises (SMEs) a wide range of advantages including improved productivity, value addition to the business and improve the performance delivery to the end users. Organisations' digital readiness and future research topics should also address the effect of technology on ethics like data privacy and identifying algorithmic bias, as well as sustainable digital business transformation initiatives outside the crisis phase. This chapter sheds lights on the socio-economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the adoption of DTs in SMEs' accounting practices in UAE. Adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud solutions, mobile accounting and robotic process automation of accounting are valuable and crucial instruments in relation to the absence of business continuity; their application contributes to remote work as well as increases efficiency. These technologies made it possible for SMEs to counter quick shocks in the market and supply changes, besides helping to cope with fluctuating cash flows. It was established that those companies that managed to adopt digitalisation strategies in the organisation were in a better place to deal with the effects caused by the pandemic. The results also pointed to a strong influence of an external environment concerning the implementation of DTs by policymakers and market forces.