Cybersecurity Practices in South African SMEs During Digital Transformation

A thematic analysis matrix summarizing coded interview data from fifteen semi-structured interviews with SME stakeholders in South Africa. The dataset documents recurring patterns and themes relating to cybersecurity prioritization, implementation, and influencing factors. It was created by Bhavya Vidhu Maroli Villangat and published on figshare under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Use Cases

• Analyzing leadership commitment to cybersecurity based on coded interview themes.
• Studying the impact of regulatory pressures on SME cybersecurity capability development.
• Identifying patterns in employee behavior and governance practices affecting cybersecurity implementation.
• Comparing organizational capabilities across different SME sectors during digital transformation.

Strengths

• Thematic analysis matrix provides transparency for the qualitative analytical process.
• Data is derived from fifteen semi-structured interviews with diverse SME stakeholders.
• Focuses on specific, well-defined themes like leadership commitment and regulatory pressures.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is very small (14.8 KB), indicating a limited scope of coded summary data.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Coded summaries from fifteen semi-structured interviews with SME owners, managers, IT professionals, and cybersecurity practitioners.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-05 10:17:47; freshness should be verified.

Geography

South Africa