Digital transformation and evolution during the global lockdown due to COVID-19 in 2020

Catarino, Axelle-Charlène Fernandes da Ponte

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/6959

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Authors

Catarino, Axelle-Charlène Fernandes da Ponte

Advisor(s)

Almeida, Nuno Miguel Castanheira

Abstract(s)

The world is going through its fourth industrial revolution where technology is constantly evolving. As a result, a dynamic environment has prevailed resulting in greater interaction with an increasingly segmented audience. Such an audience plays an increasingly important role in the management of networks and social capital formation in a logic of networked individualism. In these exceptional, surprising and historical times where a public health emergency forced everyone to stay at home, this study considers the impact of current pandemic and lockdown period on social media and consumer behavior. More specifically, this study considers the extent to which, if any, consumer behavior has changed in the face of the unknown, the uncertainty and fragility of the future and the challenges facing the unpredictable external environment during the COVID-19 lockdown. This research focuses on what people have thought and felt, both individually and collectively, of the role and value of social media during this public health crises and offers reflections on the influence of the pandemic on propelling social media developments forward. This will extend our understanding of tourist behavior by exploring to the fears and doubt that tourists may have experienced during quarantine and the perceived impact of the global pandemic on the future of the tourism industry. In terms of digital changed and transformation during lockdown, this study offers key lessons regarding the role of social networks and assesses consumer behavior reactions to the quarantine imposed by the WHO (World Health Organization) from March 11th 2020, until May 3rd 2020 (in Portugal). Following general isolation as a global response to the pandemic, this research considers the perceived thoughts and feelings of individuals by assessing changes in consumer behavior and interactions with new online revolutions, trends and evolutions specifically in the context of social media platforms and influencers. In so doing, this study reveals how consumers responded to the pandemic, identified opportunities and developed new coping and creating tools.