PhD in Emerging Markets

Digitalisation is widely promoted as a catalyst for growth and innovation, yet many SMEs and family firms in emerging economies struggle to adopt and benefit from digital technologies./nThis PhD project investigates how entrepreneurial ecosystems, including their institutional, infrastructural, social, and financial dimensions, shape digitalisation practices and adoption decisions among small firms./nWorking across selected emerging economy contexts, the research will combine ecosystem mapping, multiple case studies, and a firm-level survey to build a multi-level framework explaining why digitalisation unfolds unevenly across places and sectors./nThe findings will generate actionable insights for policymakers, incubators, development organisations, and SMEs by identifying the ecosystem features that most effectively support inclusive and sustainable digital transformation./nLocation: Loughborough.