Social isolation and social anxiety as drivers of generation Z's willingness to share personal information on social media

Generation Z (Gen Z), also known as digital natives, constitutes one‐third of the world' population. Despite notable contributions and progress explaining Gen Z's behavior, significant gaps remain in our understanding of digital natives, their interactions with new‐age technologies and how these technologies can be utilized to provide a better quality of life for this group of consumers. In this review article, we provide a background on Gen Z's consumer psychology and interactions with new‐age technologies, followed by an overview of the articles published in our special section. Finally, we suggest new areas for future research on Gen Z's consumer psychology and interactions with new‐age technologies. Specifically, we propose four main themes for future research in this area: (1) Gen Z and new‐age technologies, specifically generative artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, the metaverse, virtual influencers, and live streaming; (2) Gen Z consumers and global issues, specifically economic and social issues, sustainability and environmental issues, and health and wellbeing; (3) combining theories, concepts and disciplines to understand Gen Z and new‐age technologies; and (4) new methods and forms of collaboration.

Section: The Articles In This Special Sectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Articles In This Special Sectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generation Z's psychology and new‐age technologies: Implications for future research

Ameen,

Hosany,

Taheri

2023

“…On the one hand, as evidenced by the popularity of loyalty programs and the widespread acceptance of digital cookies, many customers frequently share their personal data with firms that they have favorable customer relationships with (Li et al, 2021; Plangger & Montecchi, 2020). However, if this surveillance leads to a data security event (e.g., hack, data device loss, unintended disclosure), it may activate customers' privacy concerns, or anxiety over the potential misuse or access of personal data (Bright et al, 2021; Lyngdoh et al, 2023). When activated due to a data security event, privacy concerns have the potential to dramatically impact customer relationships leading to an increase in switching behaviors (Martin et al, 2017; Rehman et al, 2020) and potentially spreading to other customers (Visentin et al, 2021).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does (customer data) size matter? Generating valuable customer insights with less customer relationship risk

Plangger

Marder

Montecchi

et al. 2023

Customer surveillance is a pervasive marketing practice that involves the collection, usage, and storage of customers' data from transactions, loyalty programs, and social media. Customer data are valuable to firms in gaining or maintaining an edge over competitors by developing superior customer insights that may assist product or service innovations. However, customer surveillance practices also risk customer relationships by potentially activating privacy and data security concerns. This article explores customer insight strategies that focus customer surveillance by assessing the insight value of data sources to avoid unnecessary data collection and capture. Three prediction experiments show that three distinct data source attributes, namely data quantity, data detail, and data content, are diagnostic of the prediction accuracy of customer psychographic characteristics and behavioral intentions. By demonstrating that customer insights are more (or less) valuable when derived from different data sources, this article shows that “more” data is not necessarily better. We advocate a smarter approach to customer surveillance practices that are selective in choosing to capture customer data that can yield more accurate customer insights while reducing the risk of jeopardizing customer relationships.

“…In the context of mobile technology, young consumers represent a particularly relevant customer group worthy of investigation (Lyngdoh et al, 2023). These consumers have grown up with mobile technology and strongly value the convenience of mobile information search and shopping (Klarna, 2023; Mahapatra, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asking your phone or a frontline employee? The influence of in‐store information source on choice overload, responsibility, and confidence among young consumers

Schaefers

Kessenbrock

Cziehso³

et al. 2023

Consumers frequently use mobile phones in a store to search for external information as an alternative to consulting with frontline employees. Mobile phone usage is especially prevalent among young consumers. Drawing on qualitative study results and existing literature, we conceptualize the effects of different in-store information sources on choice overload, responsibility, and confidence among young consumers, as well as the moderating role of product category knowledge. A field experiment suggests that when knowledge is low, consulting with frontline employees (vs. mobile phone) leads to lower choice overload and, consequently, increases choice confidence. When knowledge is high, these beneficial effects are attenuated. At the same time, young consumers perceive greater choice responsibility when their phone is the information source; however, this does not influence choice confidence. This work contributes to extant literature by extending the knowledge of customer experience at the point of sale, the role of technology usage in in-store retailing, and the role of frontline employees as an information source. It also provides managerial implications for retailers by highlighting the importance of providing an opportunity for an in-person frontline employee interaction especially when customers have low product category knowledge.