A major change in contemporary cities concerns the digitalization of economic activities of both consumers and good/service providers, especially in light of the COVID pandemic. Till now, many studies have explored how the pandemic has promoted the digital turn of consumers’ shopping behaviour, however, very little is known regarding the impacts of the pandemic on the digitalization of service providers’ marketing activities. To address this issue, this study aims to explore where, to what extent, and how long the COVID pandemic has affected the digitalization of service providers through the case of urban restaurants in Shenzhen, China. Specifically, based on the change of the calculated internet adoption rates by urban restaurants before, during, and after the COVID pandemic, this study classified urban areas into four distinctive types, including the prior digitalized area, temporary digitalized area, permanent new digitalized area, and non-digitalized area. Furthermore, this study examined the factors leading to the differences in the digitalization pattern of urban restaurants. Understanding the digitalization of economic entities in light of the COVID pandemic is of significance for planning and policymaking, given its relevance to urban issues like the spatial organization of economic activities and the spatial configuration of commercial facilities.

Zhenzhen Wang
Department of Land Resources Management, China University of Geosciences (CUG)

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ID Abstract: 722