Effects of COVID-19 on Business Models in Romania and the Netherlands, A Digitalization Perspective

Abstract

The research objective is to study how Romanian and Dutch organizations' business models have changed under COVID-19 conditions. The role of digitalization in adapting business models and business practices is studied. The theoretical background reviews literature about business models and their dimensions. Literature review investigated digitalization in Romanian and Dutch organizations. Research questions were: To what extent do Romanian and Dutch organizations use: •more digital methods in their offer to their clients now than before the crisis? •more digital methods in their business processes now than before the crisis? •more digital methods in communicating with their clients now than before the crisis? To what extent are there any significant differences between Romanian and Dutch organizations regarding the use of digital methods? Using qualitative and quantitative methods, conclusions show that Romanian and Dutch organizations adapted their business models to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis by applying digitalization in their value creation and value delivery using different digital methods. The frequency and choice of specific digital methods are in line with digitalization levels of Romania and The Netherlands as per the DESI index. In both countries, digitalization helped business models resilience although the level of digitalization in the organization's country were significantly different.