An Introduction to Consumer Metamorphosis in the Digital Age

Abstract

The role and characteristics of the consumer has evolved through a series of economic, social and technological developments. The power to control the market has passed from the producer to the consumer. As Karl Marx acknowledged by the end of the nineteenth century, production and consumption are related with each other inevitably, inherently and dialectically. Prosumers create exchange value for the companies; therefore, they inspire a fundamental change in the economic system, and this change has significant implications for the production process. Technological developments such as the introduction of personal computers, the Internet, social media and mobile devices accelerated the digital revolution and the metamorphosis of consumers into a new type of prosumers. Developments based on digital technologies continue to draw the borders of a new world with unique characteristics and dynamics. Briefly, consumer behaviour is influenced by the digital revolution, and it changed the classical understanding on production.