Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Website Technology Penetration on Businesses in Rural Towns

Abstract

Rural small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) represent a significant proportion of SMEs, are typically micro-enterprises (MSMEs), and face different challenges to their urban peers yet are typically under-represented in research. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated enterprise internet adoption and use however extant reports primarily focus on large enterprises and SMEs, as a whole. This paper examines web technology (WT) adoption by 849 businesses in five rural towns prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Longitudinal data is analysed by town, technology, and economic activity. We find that COVID-19 resulted in significant growth in the adoption of online advertising, cloud computing, and e-commerce by rural businesses. Rural businesses located in commuter towns adopted more WTs than those in other rural towns. Highly digitalised sectors increased their WT adoption more than those reliant on physical products or human interaction. Similarly, those who already had high levels of WTs in place adopted more sophisticated technologies.