The Role of Virtual Communication in Building an Intertwined Relation Between Business Resilience and Community Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 outbreak that emerged in December 2019 has had a dramatic impact on the global economy in which consumption, trade, and service activities have been greatly disrupted. Businesses across many sectors have experienced a severe decline in sales and jobs. But the magnitude and distribution of the pandemic greatly affected small firms, due to them being more financially constrained. This article provides a comprehensive assessment of the short-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Algerian businesses. Based on a novel data set, the article shows how, beyond adjusting their labor costs and enforcing government-mandated lockdowns and social distancing, businesses could respond to the shock of COVID-19 thanks to the use of communication tools, such as the Internet and digital technologies, as well as the cooperation between companies. The article concludes that those firms that used Internet-based communication tools and those that built new ways of business cooperation and provided help to community during the lockdown showed higher survival rates after the lockdown.