Online presence and SMEs’ performance: Evidence from the furniture industry in Veneto, Italy.

Online presence has become increasingly important over the last decade, not only for people in their everyday lives but also for companies that use digital channels to communicate with customers and interact with markets. This thesis investigates the relationship between online presence and the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the furniture industry in the Veneto region of Italy. The study aims to analyze how different dimensions of online presence, including website characteristics and social media adoption, are associated with firm performance. Moreover, it explores whether distinct patterns of online presence emerge among SMEs based on their adoption and use of websites and social media platforms. The empirical analysis is based on data obtained from the AIDA database, combined with manually collected information on firms’ websites and social media presence across different platforms. The analysis was conducted using RStudio and combines regression analysis and cluster analysis. Regression models were used to examine the relationship between online presence indicators and firm performance, while cluster analysis was applied to explore different patterns of online presence among firms. The findings suggest that online presence is associated with firm performance in different ways depending on the performance measure considered. This thesis contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence on SMEs’ online presence in a specific industrial and geographical context characterized by traditional manufacturing and the relevance of digital communication.