Author
Listed:
- Mohammed Elhaj Mustafa Ali
(Development Studies and Research Institute, University of Khartoum)
- Ebaidalla Mahjoub Ebaidalla
(Department of Economics, University of Khartoum)
Abstract
The worldwide precautionary measures adopted to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 imposed a drastic negative impact on the performance of the business sector. To avoid losses and negative consequences, many rms have adopted digital solutions. This study assesses the role of the COVID-19 outbreak in accelerating digital transformation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The analysis relied on micro data collected from 5,480 rms surveyed by the ILO/ERF COVID-19 MENA Monitor Enterprise Survey (CMMENT) in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia. The analysis shows that the characteristics of the rm, including rm size and foreign ownership, spur digital transformation in the business sector. Moreover, rms encountering challenges, complying with pandemic containment measures, receiving support from government are more likely to digitize. Furthermore, the results demonstrate a strong association between the pandemic outbreak and digitization and that the rms operating in the service sector have a higher likelihood to adopt digital solutions. The webinars, reports and papers are supported by the project “Advancing the Decent Work Agenda in North Africa (ADWA’)”, implemented by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The project aims to promote job-rich growth, International Labour Standards (ILS) and their application at the enterprise level. It works at the policymaking level in order to support evidence-based decisions on key dimensions of the Decent Work Agenda. This project was made possible by the generous contributions of the International Labor Organization (ILO), Agence Française de Développement (AFD), The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the Government of the United Kingdom, the World Bank and the Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development (AFESD).
Suggested Citation
Mohammed Elhaj Mustafa Ali & Ebaidalla Mahjoub Ebaidalla, 2022.
"Does COVID-19 Pandemic Spur Digital Business Transformation in The MENA Region? Evidence From Firm Level Data,"
Working Papers
SWP20222, Economic Research Forum, revised 20 Jun 2022.
Handle:
RePEc:erg:wpaper:swp20222
Download full text from publisher
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:swp20222. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sherine Ghoneim (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/erfaceg.html .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through
the various RePEc services.