SCARP PhD student Juri Kim presents research insights at IDRiM 2025

Business evaluations of neighbourhood advantage/disadvantage and recovery outcomes after COVID-19 in Vancouver and Calgary

Presenter: Juri Kim, PhD candidate, UBC SCARP
Co-author: Dr. Stephanie Chang, Professor, UBC SCARP

"My presentation examined how business owners’ evaluations of their neighbourhoods during COVID-19 are associated with business recovery outcomes in Calgary and Vancouver, based on survey data collected with my academic supervisor, Dr. Stephanie Chang. 

"Some interesting findings include that neighbourhood evaluations were more strongly associated with business sales recovery than with perceived recovery. For both cities, businesses evaluating their neighbourhoods as disadvantaged reported lower sales compared to pre-pandemic levels, while those with positive neighbourhood evaluations reported higher sales. For perceived recovery status, only the disadvantageous neighbourhood evaluations in Calgary showed a significant association with worse perceived recovery. Overall, negative neighbourhood perceptions had a larger effect than positive ones, suggesting that efforts to address neighbourhood disadvantages could be especially important for supporting business recovery."

This work is part of a larger project underway with SCARP Professor Stephanie Chang. Stay tuned!