Small business revenues worldwide were drastically affected by lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, many small businesses introduced new functionality through the adoption of digital technologies. However, little is known about the nature of these digital technology innovations, including whether they differed across industry sectors. Through a modified case study approach, we examine digital technology responses to the pandemic by small businesses that were identified in Google News. We introduce a new framework designed to describe the nature of the responses. Most small businesses that were examined introduced digital responses by offering new e-commerce facilities and/or converting their existing services to ‘e-services’, with some important cross sector exceptions. Practical suggestions for small businesses are provided.

全球小企业收入因 COVID-19 大流行期间的封锁而受到严重影响。因此，许多小型企业通过采用数字技术引入了新功能。然而，人们对这些数字技术创新的性质知之甚少，包括它们在不同行业领域是否存在差异。通过修改后的案例研究方法，我们研究了谷歌新闻中确定的小型企业对这一流行病的数字技术反应。我们引入了一个新的框架，旨在描述响应的性质。大多数接受调查的小型企业都通过提供新的电子商务设施和/或将现有服务转换为“电子服务”来引入数字化响应，但也有一些重要的跨部门例外。为小型企业提供实用建议。