Small and medium-sized enterprises are the new force of economic and social development, and play an important role in providing employment, developing production, innovating technology, paying taxes, stimulating the market and serving the society. Attaching importance to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, focusing on solving the practical difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises, and doing their best to help small and medium-sized enterprises cope with the challenges they face should become the consensus and consistent action of the whole society. According to the new characteristics of the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the digital era, CCID think tank Small and medium-sized Enterprise Research Institute has summarized in detail four types of universal and deep-seated new challenges faced by small and medium-sized enterprises.

First, there is the variability of technology. Global information and communication technology, biomedicine technology, energy conservation and environmental protection technology changes rapidly, all kinds of enterprises in order to adapt to technological changes, maintain market competitiveness, invest a lot of manpower and material resources in technology research and development. As a kind of enterprise with small scale and weak anti-risk ability, small and medium-sized enterprises have weak capital, talent and technology foundation. In the face of volatile technological changes, more investment will lead to huge risks, while less investment will inevitably lag behind. Even if the technology direction is right, the commercialization of the technology is often inadequate. Technological change is the primary challenge facing smes.

Second, there is uncertainty about the outcome of digital transformation. The essence of digital transformation is to resolve the uncertainty of complex systems through “data + algorithm”, which determines that the digital transformation of smes is to solve the uncertainty problem in production and operation with weak economic and technical strength, and the results of digital transformation of smes also have great uncertainty, often a huge investment, but the effect is not enough to make up for the pay.

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Third, the complexity of the international environment. On a global scale, countries differ greatly in their systems, levels of economic development, values, ways of life and cultural customs. Coupled with the interweaving of COVID-19, wars and geopolitical competition, the international environment has become more complex and volatile. Accordingly, smes’ technological innovation, enterprise management, business model and personnel quality must also adapt to a more complex international environment.

Finally, there is the ambiguity of consumer demand. In the age of digitalization and networking, consumers have a very clear understanding of the explicit functions of products such as consumption patterns, products and services. But what consumers use for value judgment, and how to understand the product function, etc., is implicit and vague. Today’s consumers choose products and services based on a wide range of criteria, which may be professional advice, past experience, personal preferences, expertise, expectations and financial capabilities. In this case of multi-dimensional selection, if we still only consider the explicit function of the product or service, it is often not enough.

The above four points are objective challenges faced by smes, and they are also topics that the relevant government departments must address. The author believes that building a public service platform conducive to improving the innovation ability and informatization level of enterprises, building a public service system conducive to meeting market demand and exploring the international market, and building an enterprise development ecology conducive to win-win cooperation between large and small enterprises are the only way to support China’s smes to cope with new challenges and promote the high-quality development of smes. It is worth the perseverance of all sectors of society to concentrate on joint discussion, serious research and efforts to promote.