Does the use of digital tools improve a firm’s performance?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant economic impact. Different economic agents have been forced to make temporary or permanent changes to their usual patterns of economic activity. In some business sectors, confinement brought activity to a standstill; in others, it led to the spread of teleworking and, in parallel, highlighted, among other aspects, the importance of digital sales channels. In this context, digitalization can be seen as an opportunity (even a necessity) to maintain the level of business activity and to develop new business initiatives. Firms that used digital tools in their pre-pandemic processes were better prepared to face the health and economic crises and could emerge from them earlier than those companies that were less digitized. Drawing on data from The Future of Business Survey, this paper analyzes the adoption of digital tools in the wake of the pandemic and examines the relationship between pre- and post-pandemic indicators of business digitization and business performance, as measured by sales and employeees. It also considers the diversity of existing digital platforms and the possible uses of these tools.