How digital technology transforms consumption: a critical reflection on theoretical lenses and a research agenda

This conceptual paper reflects upon interpretive consumer and marketing researchers’ efforts to theorise digital technology’s capacity to change consumption. We assess the ability of established (practice and relational material perspectives) and emerging theoretical lenses (affordances, postphenomenology, sociotechnical imaginaries, and techno-animism) to capture how digital technologies transform consumption at micro (individual practices and their meanings), meso (the actors and institutions involved) and macro (market systems) levels. In an era of accelerated technological advancements where change may outpace our ability to understand it, this exercise is timely and necessary. It draws attention to how different theoretical lenses shape the aspects of transformation that research represents, foregrounding specific elements while obscuring others. By inviting researchers to reflect on change through the critical application of these lenses, we offer a research agenda for expanding our understanding of the implications of digital technologies for consumption.