Влиянието на пандемията от COVID-19 върху дигитализацията и растежа на българските предприятия (2020-2025)
The Impact of The COVID-19 Pandemic on The Digitization and Growth of Bulgarian Enterprises (2020-2025)

Author(s): Vanya Bozhkova
Subject(s): Economy, National Economy, Business Economy / Management, ICT Information and Communications Technologies, Socio-Economic Research
Published by: Университет за национално и световно стопанство (УНСС)
Keywords: digitalization; e-commerce; COVID-19; SMEs; Bulgaria
Summary/Abstract: Digitalization represents the process of transforming analog data, processes, and services into digital formats that can be processed by technological systems (Winikoff, 2024). Over the past two decades, it has become a key driver of modern business, accelerating automation, information processing, and the implementation of innovations. The COVID-19 pandemic brought a sudden shift in the economic environment and forced enterprises to transition to flexible, remote, and technology-based operational models. The imposed restrictions, supply chain disruptions, and increased uncertainty positioned digital solutions as a crucial mechanism for business resilience and adaptation. The accelerated digital transformation continued even after the most critical phase of the pandemic, establishing technology as a prerequisite for competitiveness. For Bulgaria, this process holds particular importance, as the crisis revealed structural weaknesses such as limited digital readiness, insufficient innovation investment, and uneven technological development across sectors. At the same time, COVID-19 opened new opportunities for growth in the IT sector, e-commerce, and services, creating conditions for long-term economic expansion. Prior to 2020, Bulgarian enterprises demonstrated solid basic internet infrastructure but low integration of advanced technologies. 96.1% of firms with more than 10 employees had internet access, and 89.1% had a fixed connection, yet only 45.7% possessed high-speed capacity (NSI, 2022). Only 15.9% employed ICT specialists, limiting internal transformation potential. Eurostat (2024) reports that 70.6% of Bulgarian enterprises fall into the category of very low digital intensity - a factor that reduces innovation capacity and efficiency.

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