When businesses go digital: The role of CEO attributes in technology adoption and utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 has prompted a rush of technology adoption as businesses turned to digital technologies to avert closure in the face of an unprecedent pandemic. This study examines the adoption and utilization of e-commerce and remote work technologies among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) during the pandemic. Building on various streams of research on technology adoption and utilization, we elaborate how CEO gender and experience can shape risk-taking attitude and crisis responsiveness, influencing technology adoption and utilization decisions. Analysis using a rich dataset of >20,000 enterprises across 42 countries revealed that female CEOs were significantly less likely to adopt remote work technologies; moreover, female CEOs leading small-sized enterprises were less likely to adopt e-commerce. However, CEO gender was not associated with the utilization intensity of remote work and e-commerce technologies. CEOs' industry experience was found to have an inverted U-shaped relationship with the adoption and utilization of both e-commerce and remote work technologies. These results reveal that top management decisions attributable to CEO experience, and to a lesser degree to CEO gender, can help explain divergent levels of digital technology adoption and utilization during the pandemic.