Minority-Owned, Claimed Status, and Profile Attributes of Businesses on Google Maps: COVID-19 Pandemic Survival

Theoretical frameworks Resource-Based View (RBV) and competitive advantages have served as conceptual foundations for investigating the role of Google Maps in business success. This research has two key findings: First, an analysis of a dataset obtained by scraping local business information from Google Maps (N = 9,445) shows that minority-owned businesses were less likely to be claimed on Google Maps and received fewer consumer review comments compared to their non-minority counterparts. Second, a comparison of Google Maps data collected before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 and follow-up data gathered in 2022 reveals higher survival rates among businesses that were claimed, utilized business attributes, or had more reviews. Together, these findings suggest that a stronger presence on Google Maps contributed to competitive advantages and business survival during the pandemic. This underscores the importance of Google Maps presence for the survival of businesses during a crisis.