Understanding digital consumer: A review, synthesis, and future research agenda

Abstract

In the last 20 years, the proliferation of digital technologies has significantly impacted both businesses' operations and how consumers get information, engage, and buy. Through the analysis of 74 marketing journals, this article identifies the current situation and possible gaps within digital consumer behavior research. By combining bibliometric analysis and machine learning algorithms, the authors have identified key topics in 5‐year intervals and their evolution over time. The study results show that digitalization has overreached its original subsistence and has become an essential aspect of mainstream consumption patterns. The study reveals three domains within digital consumer behavior: (1) the use of classical consumption theories and their application to digital context; (2) transactional subjects within consumers’ digitalization; and (3) digital marketing's impact on the consumption of specific product groups. Regression‐based time series applied to 42 topics discovered by text mining to define possible future research directions. Within 42 topics, significant growth is expected in mobile channel use, sustainable consumption, user‐generated content, and social media engagement. In general, the results exhibit a shift from a transactional point of view to a more theoretical and strategic perspective. Possible research gaps are expected to emerge from: (1) the impact of interactive and immersive technologies on consumption practices; (2) the possible outcomes of the pandemic on digital consumption patterns; (3) enhancing brand engagement through consumer‐to‐consumer interactions; (4) enhancing the understanding on issues like consumer collaboration, consumer trust, and service satisfaction.

Tourist accommodation, consumption and platforms

“…The digital economy, which includes tourist accommodation platforms, has become an essential means of consumption, which we can call mainstream (Güngör & Çadırcı, 2021;.…”

“…New opportunities, new business models and risks have definitely been generated, and the way of making decisions has altered (Pedersen & Netter, 2015). The digital economy, which includes tourist accommodation platforms, has become an essential means of consumption, which we can call mainstream (Güngör & Çadırcı, 2021; Martín et al, 2022).…”

Order effect of multi‐touchpoints on Generation Z consumers

“…Customer-controlled touchpoints impact the customer journey experience and decision-making process (Hamilton et al, 2021;Sa gkaya Güngör & Ozansoy Çadırcı, 2022). For example, 94% of consumers choose travel destinations and accommodations based on other travellers' online reviews (TripAdvisor, 2020).…”

Gradual stimulation of respondents' reflexivity: A research design for studying unreflexive consumers

“…Many studies still view consumers and technology as discrete entities with inherent characteristics or at most as mutually dependent ensembles interacting with each other whose primary mechanisms are impact, moderation, mediation and interaction (e.g., Dhir et al, 2021; Hentzen et al, 2022; Kamboj & Sharma, 2022). Researchers still view consumers as users of mobile technology that is seen as an object (e.g., Ahn et al, 2016; Cavalinhos et al, 2021; Ju et al, 2022; Morozova & Gurova, 2021; Nikou, 2015; Sohn et al, 2022; Žnidaršič et al, 2022) with which they might have a relationship (e.g., Parent & Shapka, 2020), neglecting the fundamental phenomenological fusion of (young) people with their smartphones in studies of consumer behaviour (e.g., Barrera & Ponce, 2021; Mandal & Tripathi, 2022) and in systematic reviews delineating research gaps (e.g., Sağkaya Güngör & Ozansoy Çadırcı, 2022).…”