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Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are fundamental to the socioeconomic development of a country or region. They directly contribute to increasing employment generation and improving income distribution. Despite the importance of SMEs, there are still opportunities for developing works that support and guide SMEs to use digital technologies, especially to digitalize their customer service. Therefore, this work aims to propose drivers containing recommendations for developing and improving the digitalization of customer service in SMEs.

This work uses a qualitative approach to systematize the main SMEs' characteristics and identify the boosting elements of the digitalization of customer service in the scientific literature. To this end, the authors conducted a content analysis of the most influential empirical and theoretical articles on the theme published from 2016 to 2021 in the Scopus database.

This work identified 38 boosting elements of the digitalization of customer service based on the scientific literature. These elements were grouped into six drivers for developing and improving the digitalization of customer service. The drivers contain recommendations that were adapted for SMEs according to their characteristics and based on the experience of the authors of this work.

This work contributes to promoting socioeconomic development, providing important solutions for managers and owners of SMEs to improve their customer service. The proposed drivers support and encourage the use of digital technologies for developing and improving customer service, overcoming the challenges of digitalization in these companies. Thus, SMEs will be able to increase the satisfaction of their customers and improve their competitiveness.

This work aims to propose guidelines for small industrial businesses to take their first steps toward implementing systems, programs and tools (SPTs) for environmental management in a structured way.

The authors conducted case studies in large companies certificated ISO 14001. They ran tests for construct validity, external validity and reliability. Cross-analysis of the information collected led to identifying patterns and strategies adopted by these companies to implement environmental management. Based on the literature on environmental management in small businesses and the author's experience, the practices learned from large companies were adapted to the reality of small ones, thus resulting in the proposed guidelines.

These guidelines enable small companies to develop their environmental management following the logical evolution of SPTs: ISO 14001, green supply chain management (GSCM), cleaner production (CP) and green design (GD). The implementation should happen gradually, through the PDCA cycle, according to three specific levels of environmental evolution.

Since the guidelines focused on small industrial companies, future studies should consider other sectors, such as services, to benefit from the solutions presented. As for the implications, besides improving the small company's performance and enhancing its image, implementing the guidelines creates a green synergy along the supply chain, thus benefiting society beyond the company's borders.

The main theoretical-scientific contribution of this work is to deepen a block of knowledge that articulates environmental management and small businesses, creating a basis for further research and a reference for analyzing and discussing empirical studies in small companies. As an applied-management contribution, the guidelines allow small companies to effectively develop SPTs to move toward environmental sustainability.