2013/10/17 by Lauren I. Labrecque, Jonas vor dem Esche, Charla Mathwick +2 · 2 citations
Social Sciences · Business, Management and Accounting · Engineering · #Digital Marketing and Social Media #Innovation and Socioeconomic Development #Service and Product Innovation #The Internet #Power (physics) #Empowerment #Social media #Marketing #Consumer behaviour #Intersection (aeronautics) #Digital media #Advertising #Direct-to-consumer advertising #Business #Consumer demand #Political science #Economics #Computer science #World Wide Web #Engineering #Microeconomics
paper · doi:10.1016/j.intmar.2013.09.002
openalex publication_date 2013/10/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The predictions of growing consumer power in the digital age that predated the turn of the century were fueled by the rise of the Internet, then reignited by social media. This article explores the intersection of consumer behavior and digital media by clearly defining consumer power and empowerment in Internet and social media contexts and by presenting a theoretical framework of four distinct consumer power sources: demand-, information-, network-, and crowd-based power. Furthermore, we highlight technology's evolutionary role in the development of these power sources and discuss the nature of shifts in power from marketers to consumers in terms of each source. The framework organizes prior marketing literature on Internet-enabled consumer empowerment and highlights gaps in current research. Specific research questions are elaborated for each source of power outlining the agenda for future research areas.