Resumen: This paper deals with the approximation of continuous functions by the classical Szász–Mirakyan operator. We give new bounds for the constant in front of the second order Ditzian–Totik modulus of smoothness in direct inequalities. Asymptotic and non asymptotic results are stated. We use both analytical and probabilistic methods, the latter involving the representation of the operators in terms of the standard Poisson process. A smoothing technique based on a modification of the Steklov means is also applied. Idioma: Inglés DOI: 10.1007/s13398-022-01379-2 Año: 2023 Publicado en: Revista de la Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicas y Naturales - Serie A: Matematicas 117 (2023), 43 [12 pp] ISSN: 1578-7303 Factor impacto JCR: 1.8 (2023) Categ. JCR: MATHEMATICS rank: 39 / 490 = 0.08 (2023) - Q1 - T1 Factor impacto CITESCORE: 4.7 - Applied Mathematics (Q1) - Computational Mathematics (Q1) - Analysis (Q1) - Geometry and Topology (Q1) - Algebra and Number Theory (Q1)