Digital Transformation Needs Assessment in Manufacturing SMEs: An Industry Technology Intensity Perspective

The digital transformation of manufacturing SMEs is a strategic priority of the EU’s Digital Decade agenda, yet technology-intensity-differentiated evidence on SME DT profiles remains largely absent from the literature. This exploratory, quantitative study analyzes needs assessment data from 71 manufacturing SMEs in Romania’s Centru Region, collected through FIT EDIH. Following Eurostat’s industry technology-intensity classification, firms are assigned to two analytical groups: high and medium-high tech industries (Group A, n=12) and medium-low and low tech industries (Group B, n=59). The study aims to provide technology-intensity-differentiated evidence on DT needs, barriers, technology priorities, expected outcomes, and anticipated EDIH service demand, and to generate actionable intelligence for FIT EDIH service design. Descriptive and bivariate methods – Welch t-tests, ANOVA, Pearson and Spearman correlations – are applied. Industry technology intensity differentiates DT profiles, yet planning capacity and technology identification (each cited by two-thirds of SMEs regardless of group) establish a sector-agnostic pre-adoption bottleneck. SMEs recognizing DT as urgent but not yet acting record the lowest technology ambition alongside the highest anticipated service demand. Anticipated service demand is uniformly distributed across DT approach stages. These findings support a dual-dimension intake protocol – assessing industry technology intensity and DT approach stage independently – enabling differentiated yet universally accessible EDIH support.