This study investigates the extent to which international academic conferences changes format to virtual when faced by sudden Covid-19 related immobility. Data on 587 conferences in the fields of business, economics, information technology, management and other social sciences that were planned to be held between March and August 2020 are retrieved from authorised conference listings. Approximately 28% of the conferences changed to virtual format during the period of time studied. Probit estimations reveal that the probability of changing format to virtual increases with the country of location (United States), planning horizon and the available quality of broadband infrastructure in the scheduled conference country. However, the role of planning horizon differs across fields and location of the conference. The probability of virtual conferences is highest in the United States and for academic conferences in the field of information technology.

中文翻译：

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当国际学术会议转向虚拟时


本研究调查了国际学术会议在面临与 Covid-19 相关的突然瘫痪时在多大程度上将会议形式改为虚拟会议。从授权会议列表中检索了计划于 2020 年 3 月至 8 月期间举办的 587 个商业、经济、信息技术、管理和其他社会科学领域的会议的数据。在研究期间，大约 28% 的会议改为虚拟形式。 Probit 估计显示，将格式更改为虚拟的可能性随着所在国家/地区（美国）、规划范围以及预定会议国家/地区宽带基础设施的可用质量的增加而增加。然而，规划范围的作用因领域和会议地点而异。虚拟会议的概率在美国以及信息技术领域的学术会议中是最高的。