Digitisation has raised concerns about how it can transform the growth of productivity in firms and its divergence around the world. Given that literature has focused mainly on confirming firm productivity gaps, research on the explanatory role of digital-based complementarities in productivity gaps has been scarce. This work aims to provide evidence on the digital divide and its causes in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and in large firms. Using a sample of 5,840 Spanish SMEs and large firms during the 1991–2016 period, results reflect a growing divergence in total factor productivity, both for SMEs and for large firms. Moreover, they also show that the productivity gap becomes more evident when firms develop digital-based complementarities, particularly those derived from ICT investment, R&D activities and product innovation. Firm strategies and policy implications of the results obtained are also discussed.

数字化引发了人们对其如何改变企业生产力增长及其在世界各地的分歧的担忧。鉴于文献主要关注确认企业生产力差距，关于基于数字的互补性在生产力差距中的解释作用的研究很少。这项工作旨在为中小型企业 (SME) 和大公司中的数字鸿沟及其原因提供证据。使用 1991-2016 年期间 5,840 家西班牙中小企业和大公司的样本，结果反映了中小企业和大公司在全要素生产率方面的日益分化。此外，它们还表明，当企业发展基于数字的互补性时，生产力差距变得更加明显，尤其是那些源自 ICT 投资、研发活动和产品创新的互补性。