The Spanish company in the face of COVID-19: adaptation factors to the new scenario

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has radically and unpredictably changed the competitive environment for companies, with Spain being one of the western countries most affected. In this new context, to face extremely dynamic, complex, and hardly predictable competitive environments, companies must adapt by having or developing a series of specific resources and capacities. This article aims to show that the development of Information and Communication Technology, labor flexibility and the capacity to innovate are factors that favor organizations having the ability to adapt to the new and changing competitive environments caused by the health emergency of COVID-19, reflecting the organization’s ability to adapt through its ability to give continuity to both the management and monitoring of its operations and the relationship with its customers throughout all levels of the sales process. To analyze this relationship, company managers were interviewed during the months after the declaration of the state of alarm in Spain. Through the application of the multivariate analysis technique Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), it has been estimated that high levels of ICT development, labor flexibility or capacity to innovate are positively related to a better adaptation of companies to both the new needs of their customers as well as the operating limitations imposed in their respective markets.