As COVID-19 affects populations across the globe, the measures to prevent its spread are increasingly affecting our economies. Restrictions on the movement of people and goods and regulations for social distancing and quarantine affect both the consumption and production of goods and services. In this article, we examine the impact of COVID-19 on professional advisory service providers assisting their clients to excel. We find that COVID-19 has rapidly broken down several previous barriers to digital transformation and has caused a rapid increase in the adoption of digital technology among professional advisory firms. We conclude that although there might be a
corona bump
of rapid digital implementation, a
new normal
has been established, which changes the operational context and implies that the rate of digital trajectory will be steeper, and the pace will be faster, than has been earlier anticipated. This implies that professional advisors will become better suited to advise on the increasingly complex digital context of their clients.
Purpose
The effects of the spread of COVID-19 across the world are devastating, both from a health and an economic perspective. However, we also see encouraging examples of collaborative and innovative initiatives, in society and in organizations. The purpose of this paper is to focus on initiatives related to digital business model innovation. The authors explore how organizational characteristics provide a variety of opportunities for digital responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss the potential consequences for the speed of digital transformation in organizations and society.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors analyze how organizations attempt to mitigate the negative effects of fighting COVID-19 using digital business model responses. The authors draw on a qualitative study where they have collected data from the retail and service industries. They have analyzed the data in relation to theory to better understand this ongoing phenomenon.
Findings
The authors have identified four categories of organizations (crisispreneurs, accelerators, endurers and thrivers). Each category faces different challenges and shows a different intensity in their digital transformation. The authors propose that the rapid turn toward digital business models will have enduring effects, as organizations have gained transformational capabilities that will remain, and that the digital trajectory has, as a result, changed forever.
Originality/value
The findings in this paper point toward new challenges for leaders and policymakers in terms of how to support initiatives and meet the needs of different categories of organizations while simultaneously being conscious of the potential societal effects of this rapid digital shift. The authors hope that this paper can be of value for managing this shock and learning how to adapt for the future taking certain aspects of current business models as the departure point.
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