TY - GEN
T1 - Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Website Technology Penetration on Businesses in Rural Towns
AU - Lynn, Theo
AU - Rosati, Pierangelo
AU - Fox, Grace
AU - Curran, Declan
AU - O'Gorman, Colm
AU - Conway, Edel
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Rural small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) represent a significant proportion of SMEs, are typically micro-enterprises (MSMEs), and face different challenges to their urban peers yet are typically under-represented in research. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated enterprise internet adoption and use however extant reports primarily focus on large enterprises and SMEs, as a whole. This paper examines web technology (WT) adoption by 849 businesses in five rural towns prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Longitudinal data is analysed by town, technology, and economic activity. We find that COVID-19 resulted in significant growth in the adoption of online advertising, cloud computing, and e-commerce by rural businesses. Rural businesses located in commuter towns adopted more WTs than those in other rural towns. Highly digitalised sectors increased their WT adoption more than those reliant on physical products or human interaction. Similarly, those who already had high levels of WTs in place adopted more sophisticated technologies.
AB - Rural small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) represent a significant proportion of SMEs, are typically micro-enterprises (MSMEs), and face different challenges to their urban peers yet are typically under-represented in research. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated enterprise internet adoption and use however extant reports primarily focus on large enterprises and SMEs, as a whole. This paper examines web technology (WT) adoption by 849 businesses in five rural towns prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Longitudinal data is analysed by town, technology, and economic activity. We find that COVID-19 resulted in significant growth in the adoption of online advertising, cloud computing, and e-commerce by rural businesses. Rural businesses located in commuter towns adopted more WTs than those in other rural towns. Highly digitalised sectors increased their WT adoption more than those reliant on physical products or human interaction. Similarly, those who already had high levels of WTs in place adopted more sophisticated technologies.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85136725023
M3 - Conference Publication
T3 - Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
SP - 4987
EP - 4996
BT - Proceedings of the 55th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2022
A2 - Bui, Tung X.
PB - IEEE Computer Society
T2 - 55th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2022
Y2 - 3 January 2022 through 7 January 2022
ER -