COVID-19 as an entrepreneurship, innovation, digitization and digitalization accelerator: Spanish Internet domains registration analysis

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to comprehend and determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on business organizations and society, together with its relationship to entrepreneurship, innovation, digitization or digital transformation, by means of analysis of the Spanish Internet domains registration data set.

Design/methodology/approach

Following existing literature regarding time series analysis, the authors have designed a SARIMA methodology involving the forecasting of a non-COVID-19 data set from the available data and compared it to the existing COVID-19 data set in order to validate the formulated hypothesis.

Findings

The COVID-19 pandemic was found to be an unfortunate accelerator, regarding entrepreneurship and innovation as a digitization and digital transformation lever, with the results of the Internet domain registration analysis as a reliable indicator.

Originality/value

This research confirms the existence of new non-invasive approaches to complementary information, such as Internet domain registration analysis, that could serve as an early and quick indicator of innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives within business activities.

Citation

Gavrila Gavrila, S. and de Lucas Ancillo, A. (2021), "COVID-19 as an entrepreneurship, innovation, digitization and digitalization accelerator: Spanish Internet domains registration analysis", British Food Journal, Vol. 123 No. 10, pp. 3358-3390. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-11-2020-1037