Barriers of Supply Chain Digitalization from the Perspective of Malaysian SMEs

As the world is venturing the fourth phase of Industrial Revolution (IR4.0), concern on digitalization in business processes is also rising. Malaysian government has encouraged the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to implement the digitalization alongside large companies to increase the business growth. This paper attempts to explore if the SMEs find it difficult to implement digitalization in their supply chain management process. Precisely, this paper seeks to comprehend if poor technology capabilities, insufficient procedures and guidelines, workforce training, and resistance to change are preventing the SMEs to adopt digital supply chain. Besides the use of secondary data from various sources to enhance the understanding on technology adoption and behavior towards this adoption, this paper also proposes a conceptual model, developed from technology, organization, and environment (TOE) framework and theory of planned behavior (TPB). To get this model improved, empirical data will be collected through qualitative methods including semi-structured interviews and participant observations.