Data-Driven SMEs: An Empirical Analysis of Big Data Analytics Adoption in Germany Using Web Scraping Data

Ubiquitous computing and Big Data Analytics (BDA) have transformed decision-making, business operations, and innovation across various industries. As technology continues to permeate every facet of organizations, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly harnessing these tools to gain a competitive edge. This empirical study analyzed the adoption of Big Data Analytics by SMEs in Germany and its relation to innovation activity, using web scraping data. The text collected from more than 79,000 firms’ websites served as a source for exploring the adoption of BDA technologies. Through administrative data, we investigate the determinants for BDA adoption based on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework by measuring the effects of firm organization indicators like firm age, size, international ownership, and environmental circumstances, like market pressure, on BDA adoption. Our findings showed that larger, younger, and foreign-owned firms are more likely to adopt BDA technologies. Furthermore, we found a positive association between BDA adoption and innovative activities by combining data from patents and trademarks. The contribution is the empirical evidence obtained from a large-scale firm-level analysis, expanding the reach and variety of previous studies based on surveys by using web text data.