The Covid-19 Impact on Food Digital Transformation: A Bibliometric Analysis of Academic and Practitioners’ Perspectives

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about significant disruptions and challenges for businesses, including those in the food sector. This paper presents a bibliometric analysis exploring the relationship between the pandemic and digitalization in the food industry analyzing both academic and practitioners’ documents for a comprehensive understanding of the post-pandemic digital landscape. The analysis of scientific articles reveals a growing interest in the effects of Covid-19 on the food industry. Five thematic clusters emerge from the analysis: the impact of Covid-19, food production and supply, digital transformation and business model innovation, employees’ well-being, and consumer behavior. These clusters demonstrate the interconnections between various aspects influenced by the pandemic and the role of digital technologies in addressing the challenges. The study also examines practitioners’ documents from Nexis Uni to complement the academic analysis. The content analysis of these documents provides real-world insights into current debates and practices related to digital transformation in the food industry. This dual perspective offers a holistic view of the research topic. Overall, this study contributes to the existing literature by illuminating the evolving relationship between the pandemic and digitalization in the food sector. The research captures the state of digital technology adoption in the food industry after the pandemic outbreak, and the findings provide valuable insights for academics, practitioners, and policymakers interested in understanding the implications of digitalization in the post-pandemic food industry.