Abstract
Because of the threat it poses to human health around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating effects on the economies of all countries. Businesses had to change their business models, working conditions, marketing communication, technology usage, strategy development, and supply chain relationships in order to continue operations that had come to a halt. In order to realize this change in the best way, businesses have attempted to integrate digital tools into their business processes. As a result, the business world experienced a rapid digital transformation. Based on those, the purpose of this chapter is to investigate the impact of the rise of digital transformation on businesses during COVID-19. The existing literature and reports were reviewed for this purpose. It is thus discussed how businesses experienced digital transformation during COVID-19.
TopIntroduction
In addition to technological developments, globalization, changing customer expectations, and unusual events such as COVID-19 are now accelerating the transformation of the information society and making the integration of digital tools into business processes more commonly (Gabryelczyk, 2020). Thus, digital transformation becomes mandatory for companies by expanding its scope (Fletcher & Griffiths, 2020). In its most basic form, the process that starts and continues with digitization takes its final form in the third stage with digital transformation (Verhoef et al., 2021). Digital transformation builds on the previous two stages and uses data and information technologies in the business world to make data-based decisions, including the creation of systems and maintaining their working (Verhoef et al., 2021).
Digital transformation is worth researching as it integrates technology in all processes of the businesses by bringing innovation to product/service (Shankar et al., 2021; Jiang & Wen, 2020), business models (Kraft et al., 2021), customer experiences (Jiang & Wen, 2020), skills (e.g., data management, analytics, digital literacy; Young & Rogers, 2019). Those innovations are essential tools for increasing revenue (Singh et al., 2021), making a great contribution to the performance (Singh et al., 2021), as well sustaining competitive advantage (Singh et al., 2021). In other words, to maintain their existence, firms have to keep up with digital transformation (Moşteanu & Fathi, 2020).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Pandemic: The umbrella term for epidemic illnesses that spread and affect a large geographic region in more than one continent throughout the world.
Marketing Communication: A phrase for promotional acts intended to sell products, services, or ideas.
Strategy: The course that a business must take to retain its stability and commercial success.
Digitalization: Incorporation of information technology into products and services in order to provide value to customers.
Digital Transformation: A process of addressing societal and sectoral demands through the incorporation of digital technology into the corporate environment.
Supply Chain: A network formed by a corporation and its suppliers to manufacture and promote a specific product or service.
Digitization: The process of moving data and information from paper and other mediums to digital media in a computer context.
Business model: A plan for improving or developing a business in order to run it successfully.
COVID-19: A viral infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Remote Work: A type of flexible working style that allows an individual to work from home or another location other than the office.