Are virtual meetings here to stay? : A qualitative study of how Covid-19 has influenced international firms' way of communicating in B2B meetings.

Sammanfattning: The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way international firms communicate with each other. Closed borders have led to people and firms not being able to travel to meet physically, which has created a lack in communication. In order to continue having business meetings, firms have been forced into the use of virtual communication as the only way to communicate when not being able to meet physically. This has led to virtual communication being a crucial factor in maintaining international business relationships. However, as the pandemic has been decreasing worldwide, and borders are in the beginning of opening up again, will international business go back to having meetings physically, or have the virtual ways of conducting business meetings taken over? In order to provide a deeper insight of how firms intend to use virtual meetings as a way to communicate post Covid-19, this thesis aims are to explore how Covid-19 has influenced the way international businesses communicate in B2B meetings.  In order to contribute to reliable foundation of the topic, this research will conduct a qualitative approach, by conducting semi-structured interviews. By analyzing the accumulated data, the findings will present how international firms intend to communicate with their clients in a post Covid era, when closed borders are no longer an obstacle. As well as how the relationships between international firms have been affected by the limitation in physical meetings as a cause of the pandemic. Finally, this research will conclude that physical meetings will largely go back to a pre Covid phase, although virtual communication is here to stay as a complement. Nevertheless, finding "A good balance" between physical meetings and virtual meetings must be emphasized.