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The business response to Covid-19 one year on: findings from the second wave of the CEP-CBI survey on technology adoption

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  • Juliana Oliveira-Cunha
  • Capucine Riom
  • Anna Valero

Abstract

We present new data from a survey of 425 UK businesses conducted in July 2021 in partnership with the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which seeks to understand the ways in which firms have innovated one year on in response to the pandemic. We find that process innovation has been widespread since March 2020: 75% of firms have adopted digital technologies, 55% new digital capabilities and nearly 70% new management practices, and a large share of firms continued to innovate beyond the initial lockdowns. We find similar patterns in terms of the introduction of new products or services. We describe how the self-reported impacts of these technologies on firm performance and on workers differ across types of businesses, technologies adopted and business functions that these technologies relate to. We find that previous technology adoption is a strong predictor of a continued innovation response to the crisis, and that gaps in performance between more and less digitised firms might be expected to widen in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Juliana Oliveira-Cunha & Capucine Riom & Anna Valero, 2021. "The business response to Covid-19 one year on: findings from the second wave of the CEP-CBI survey on technology adoption," CEP Covid-19 Analyses cepcovid-19-024, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepcvd:cepcovid-19-024
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Ben Yahmed, Sarra & Berlingieri, Francesco & Brüll, Eduard, 2022. "Adjustments of local labour markets to the COVID-19 crisis: The role of digitalisation and working-from-home," ZEW Discussion Papers 22-031, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.

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    Keywords

    Covid-19; Technological change; Productivity;
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