Women Business Owners and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Digitalization as a Crisis Response
Digitalization as a Crisis Response explores how women entrepreneurs adapted to disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic by accelerating the use of digital tools, platforms, and business models. Drawing on global data and faculty research, the white paper highlights how digital transformation helped women-owned businesses maintain operations, reach customers, and remain competitive during a period of unprecedented economic uncertainty.
Authored by Tatiana Manolova, Professor of Management at Bentley University, the paper examines how crisis conditions accelerated digital adoption across entrepreneurial ecosystems and what this shift means for the future of women-led ventures. The findings show that digital adoption was not simply a short-term survival tactic. For many women entrepreneurs, it became a catalyst for innovation, enabling new forms of customer engagement, market expansion, and business resilience. The paper also examines the structural barriers that continue to shape access to digital infrastructure, capital, and entrepreneurial ecosystems.
This publication is the first in a three-part white paper series produced by The Center for Women and Business highlighting research on women’s entrepreneurship and the systems that influence opportunity, growth, and long-term success.