Dear Margherita Zagato,

Many current social, technological, economic and other processes already indicate that due to the development of the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus pandemic causing Covid-19 disease, the processes of digitization of the economy will significantly increase and accelerate. This is mainly due to the fact that due to the suggested or forced periodic home quarantine introduced in some countries, many people continue their work working at home, i.e. in remote mode, contacting the company and colleagues via the Internet and tel. Also in connection with suspension teaching classes in schools and colleges in some countries is also increasing the use of e-learning in education. Also in many other areas, traditional people change their functioning, transform their activities into an IT, Internet, remote form, etc.

Regards

Dariusz Prokopowicz

The Covid-19 pandemic has scarred the world. It is life now completely unrecognisable in comparison to the freedoms we had a few short months ago. Lockdowns have restricted travel so those industries which have successfully digitalised are thriving. Whilst those businesses that are unable to do so are in danger of collapsing and bringing a significant chunk of the economy down with them. In this global technocracy, almost everyone has access to a personal digital device. The limiting factor to successful digitalisation is therefore the industry rather than the public. So, the industries that will survive the Covid-19 crisis are those who either do not need to digitalise or can digitalise completely. For example, even the education system has fully digitalised. From kindergartens to universities; every educational institution is holding online classes. Some are even pre-recorded. Homework is submitted at the click of a button. This new system has resulted in cost savings and one wonders why this was not more common before. The hospitality business has suffered as it can only partially digitalise. Sit-in restaurants are empty but online take-away services are booming. The role of tele-medicine in the healthcare sector is increasing for outpatient services. Some patients even prefer to have a consultation via telephone or video calls whilst sitting in their own homes. However, many people are unwell and need to be admitted to hospital. So, this sector can’t fully digitise. Any sector in the economy that can digitalise will thrive under these conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, once the lock downs end these industries may remain fully online having realised the significant benefits of digitalisation. However, it is difficult to digitalise international travel. Furthermore, now that the world is more digitalised than ever before, we do not need to travel as much as we did before. So, it will be interesting to see what remains of the airline industry when the lock downs end…

Wonderful Rajkumar Rajendram sir

We are currently observing a strong acceleration in the development of digitization of the economy in many countries. Digitization of the economy is currently taking place simultaneously in many areas of economic processes and in the functioning of many economic entities and public, financial and other institutions. Due to the development of the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus pandemic causing Covid-19 disease, the processes of digitization of the economy have accelerated. Currently (April 2020), in many industries and sectors, more and more companies are developing their activities via the Internet, remotely providing their services and selling their products under e-commerce. Many companies that did not do this before now switch to remote activities, carried out electronically via the Internet. The importance of Internet marketing, including viral marketing, Real-Time marketing conducted on social media portals is increasing. The development of electronic banking is also increasing, including online and mobile banking. The share of payments made electronically, without cash via the Internet and during payments with the use of electronic bank cards is increasing. More and more citizens paying in stores do not use cash but make contactless payments. Limits for all contactless payments made with bank cards have just been increased in some countries. Therefore, the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus will increase the share of payments made electronically in the context of all payments made in national economies, but it does not necessarily lead to the creation of a completely new cashless economic system. This cashless system has already existed since the 1990s, but in the past it was only a specific part of the overall payments, the financial system, etc., and gradually increased and underwent subsequent stages of the technological revolution. However, at present, due to the development of the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus pandemic, this development, i.e. the development of electronic economy, online and mobile banking, e-commerce, etc. has accelerated strongly. The dynamics of digitization processes in various areas of business entities are currently accelerating strongly. The changes are so dynamic that at present it is difficult to predict what the scale of the digitization of the economy will be, not only in a few years but even in a year. It is also associated with many puzzles regarding the development of the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus pandemic in the following months and perhaps also years. I posted more information on this topic on my RG profile. I conduct research in this matter and encourage scientific cooperation.

Greetings.

Dariusz Prokopowicz

Agreeing with reply by Dariusz Prokopowicz

Necessity is the mother of invention !! COVID-19 pandemic created necessity for certain changes that were otherwise progressing at a different pace and digitalization of the economy was for sure one.

On an abstract level, I imagine, some business models may cease to be relevant and/or will reinvent themselves for contemporary environment. As I reflect on the business models that could gain from the CHANGE, in my comprehension, globalization would get transposed, more in DIGITAL form than physical for instance, business travel would drastically reduce and get replaced by alternatives, as period of current uncertainty, is more than enough, for adoption to the contemporary options and models of business meetings which would become norm than exception. Outsourcing models will transition to next level i.e. crowd-sourcing could gain much more acceptance.

I feel change has impacted; business cycle duration and it’s linkage to disruptions. Up until the pandemic, technology facilitated retailers to reduce need of working capital, by transitioning to a demand driven mode. However with disruption of supply-chain and it's uncertainty, in spite of strength in demand a, lack of inventory has led business into zone of uncertainty.

There are some finer developments that evidence the pace of change, for example; use of Information Security Solutions for remote working (I read several articles about ZOOM video app in recent weeks or Microsoft's Teams, for example, grew over 1000%. ) OR use of Robotics across society, from domestic chores, to specialized tasks in healthcare industry and use of AI in tele-medicine as also digital transactions that have gained huge impetus (I read and watched a surge of news on such applications https://finder.startupnationcentral.org/company_page/diagnostic-robotics ).

On a completely different note, in recognition of the impact, specifically on skill acquisition critical for adopting to CHANGE to survive/thrive, I created a transposed version of the game described in chapter 4 of my book( https://www.springer.com/in/book/9781484224205). A game that facilitates learning of skills. The game conventionally engaged participants in a class-room /board room environment, it's transposed version engages participants from anywhere (remotely) i.e. the contemporary environment. While transposing, I had to ensure no loss on effectiveness on learning from experience. Here's link to the update on Reserachgate [ https://www.researchgate.net/project/IT-through-Experiential-Learning ]

Dear Margherita Zagato,

The topic of digitizing the economy within this period seems quite interesting. Here in Brazil, for example, we have accelerated the digitization of some sectors. Educational companies needed to quickly migrate to virtual classes, while restaurateurs migrated their service to deliveries using apps. Public sectors had to evolve their service to thousands of citizens, virtualizing and providing access to a series of services.

Greetings

Feel free to join our webinar tomorrow where we will discuss this in the African digital platform context https://cenfri.org/news-and-events/webinar-digital-platforms-for-inclusive-economies-africa/

Digital infrastructure plays a pivotal role in predicting and modelling outbreaks. Take AI-supported services for a lung CT scan: the AI is premeditated to quickly detect lesions of likely coronavirus pneumonia; to measure its volume, shape and density; and to compare changes of multiple lung lesions from the image. This provides a quantitative report to assist doctors in making fast judgements and thus helps expedite the health evaluation of patients.

Dear Professor, I'm presently conducting a research on my lab about the impacts of Covid-19 Quarantine on the scientific research activity. We runned a survey with almost 500 respondents for the last 3 weeks (focused on lab leaders, full professors, PhD candidates and master students). Today we just published an article with some partial findings, some of it may interest you.

Anyways, I'm willing to help all colleagues who research on prospective studies that may help humanity to surpass this crisis for a better future.

Here is the article:

Article Impacts of the Quarantine Policies of the Covid-19, Sars-Cov...

here will we be in six months, a year, 10 years from now? I lie awake at night wondering what the future holds for my loved ones. My vulnerable friends and relatives. I wonder what will happen to my job, even though I’m one of the lucky ones: I get good sick pay and can work remotely. I am writing this from the UK, where I still have self-employed friends who are staring down the barrel of months without pay, friends who have already lost jobs. The contract that pays 80% of my salary runs out in December. Coronavirus is hitting the economy bad. Will anyone be hiring when I need work?

GDP will show a sharp fall. However Env and Air quality will improve for sure

Due to the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, they will also accelerate work automation processes, including robotization, implementation of ICT, Internet and Industry 4.0 information technologies, learning machines for business processes, including manufacturing processes, production processes, service provision, etc. in many companies.

Regards.

Dariusz Prokopowicz

For some details https://www.ijmsat.com/covid-19

There is interesting article published on HBR which might be of help:

https://hbr.org/2020/03/coronavirus-is-widening-the-corporate-digital-divide

In our just accepted paper on "The economics of COVID-19: Initial empirical evidence on how family firms in five European countries cope with the corona crisis" we did take a broader exploratory approach but clearly found that digitalization is accelerated in many of the interviewed companies. In particular the adaptation of digital tools and working procedures now has to be done. Many companies had these tools available but never really used them. Now, people are forced to do so and may realize the benefits.

It has certainly accelerated the pace at which digitization was taking place.

I recently published my thoughts on the subject.

Here's link to the blog -->

https://medium.com/@sshiralkar/i-must-admit-it-took-weeks-before-accepting-that-a-change-has-occurred-and-current-reality-is-not-e3e4bec15cbf

Following.

The effect is evident in many areas of work, as many organizations have laid off many workers

Interesting related research material available here as pre-print :-)

Preprint A systematic literature review on the studies related to COV...

The SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus pandemic has increased the digitization and internetisation of economic processes in companies, enterprises, corporations, economic entities of the SME sector, public and financial institutions, etc. operating in various industries and sectors of the economy. Thanks to the implementation of ICT, Internet and Industry 4.0 information technologies, economic entities and institutions have more easily and efficiently adapted to the new economic conditions, to the economic downturn caused by the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus pandemic, to the introduced lockdowns on selected types of economic entities etc. Thanks to the implementation of ICT, Internet and Industry 4.0 information technologies, business entities and institutions have created online platforms for communication with contractors and customers, increased the efficiency of production processes, reduced certain categories of operating costs, improved the quality of the product and / or service offer, and improved the supply and production logistics. and distribution, etc., have increased the competitiveness. Thanks to the processes of technological, remedial and developmental restructuring, enterprises and institutions will also function more effectively when the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus pandemic expires. Considering the ongoing (February 2021) programs for vaccinating citizens against Coronavirus, there is a chance that in 2021 mankind will solve the problem of the pandemic and in the next few months the economic situation in many industries and sectors of the economy will improve significantly. If this positive scenario is realized, the global economy in 2021 will see an improvement in the level of economic growth by several points. percent

Best regards, Have a nice day, Stay healthy!

Dariusz Prokopowicz

Hi,

take a look into this one:

Article COVID-19 Pandemic: Shifting Digital Transformation to a High...

B.R.,

Ari

COVID-19 has accelerated data growth and digital transformation, particularly in 2020 and 2021, due to abrupt increases in work from home employees, a changing mix of richer data sets, and a surge in video-based content consumption among other factors.

Have you already studied this publication?

Conference Paper Analysis of the Impact of Digitalization on the Development ...

During the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus pandemic, the processes of digitization and internationalization of business, e-commerce, internet shopping, billing and internet payments significantly accelerated. The scale of using certain types of services available on the Internet and remote handling of official matters by citizens in public institutions has increased. Therefore, the Internet and the high level of digitization of various aspects of people's everyday life facilitated the introduction and implementation of a significant part of instruments and systemic solutions related to anti-pandemic security. Most of the people work remotely. Almost all education is provided as part of e-learning. Even many cultural and entertainment services are provided by the majority of citizens via the Internet thanks to the fact that museums and galleries have opened their online platforms presenting remotely owned resources. Libraries have digitized their library resources and offer them remotely via the Internet. Even some cinemas and theaters have launched their online platforms where they remotely present selected films and theater performances. Thanks to the digitization and Internetisation of the offer of central and local government public institutions, citizens can remotely carry out many official activities related to running a business, submitting applications for issuing specific documents, etc., as well as remotely signing up for visits to a doctor, taking advantage of medical advice remotely. Therefore, if it were not for the Internet and the digitization of economic, social and other processes, the health crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) pandemic would be much more serious and the scale of the pandemic would be much larger.

Thank you, Regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

Great Idea indeed!

While designing the questionnaire one needs to take into cognizance the impact, particularly of the work from culture on the psychological behavior of the people. Probably, the digitization of economies has led to more work-from-home culture. One might recommend some alternative means of the workplace rather than doing things from home!

Covid-19 did boost digitalization a lot:

P. Soto-Acosta, (2020). "COVID-19 Pandemic: Shifting Digital Transformation to a High-Speed Gear", Information Systems Management, Vol. 37, Iss. 4, pp. 260-266, doi: 10.1080/10580530.2020.1814461

The problem for what happens next is that:

1) no one knows what this "new normal is"

2) Lot of talks, people would like to return something which is "pre COVID-19" time, BUT our societies are not the same anymore => we cannot return to past

3) We do not know how fast people would to transform their habits 100% from current covid-19 norms to something what is so called "new norm"

4) organizations have adjusted their services, resources and supply chains to work on covid-19 "realism", a really good question is how fast can they again adjust to something we can call post COVID-19 time??

Of course there are views on this:

Z. Cao et al., (2020), "Impact of Systematic Factors on the Outbreak Outcomes of the Novel COVID-19 Disease in China: Factor Analysis Study," J Med Internet Res, vol. 22, no. 11, p. e23853