Abstract
Emerging technologies have a significant impact on the (post)pandemic world, with artificial intelligence (AI) and internet-of-things (IoT) being central to recent research in enterprise business management. Current literature focuses on emerging technologies adoption (ETA) as an outcome of firm leadership decision-making for process optimization. There is lack of evidence that ETA is exercised as a strategic renewal decision driving SMEs competitive advantage (CPA), addressing strategic challenges arising from SMEs interactions with their business ecosystem. The resource-based view (RBV) is used as a focused theory on organizational competencies, together with the technology-organisation-environment (TOE) framework analytical capabilities. The proposed conceptual model is underpinned in the TOE context as integrated determinants of ETA driving SMEs CPA. Propositions and potential theoretical and practical contributions are discussed, supporting SMEs leaders with an ETA based strategic renewal decision-making model driving CPA.