How has the COVID-19 Pandemic Transformed the E-Commerce Market on the Firm Level: Qualitative Insights from the Russian Market

Due to markets' digitalization, both consumers and businesses are increasingly involved in e-commerce activities throughout the globe. Current study aims to investigate what drives and what limits firms' integration into e-commerce activities with the focus on comparison of pre-, during and post-pandemic foci by the firms in Russian emerging market. The study is based on insights from qualitative interviews of firms' representatives, collected in 2016 and 2021. Based on comparison of interview's insights and content analysis, we identified the influencing factors from the firms' perspective, further we also introduced potential consequences of the pandemic based on the respondents' replies. One contribution of this study is to identify the limiting and the driving factors that are specific for the Russian e-commerce market. Besides, we discover some factors that can supplement the current frameworks for structuring the limiting and the driving factors of the e-commerce market. In addition to that, based on the theoretical and empirical research conducted, we can state that the factors influencing e-commerce five years ago and now are evolving rapidly and may lead to more prominent changes.