Exploring Consumers' Journey From Physical Ownership to Digital Assets

ABSTRACT This special issue examines consumers' evolving relationship with digital assets as consumption shifts from physical ownership towards immersive, access‐based digital environments. Synthesising 12 contributions across four themes (i.e., metaverse/NFT experiences, wellbeing and identity consequences, digital consumption across service contexts and marketing strategies for digital assets), our editorial maps how digital scarcity, authenticity, community engagement and psychological ownership shape consumer value, behaviour and wellbeing in digital consumption. Findings reveal digital assets' dual capacity to enhance identity expression and engagement while generating dark‐side outcomes such as hoarding, piracy and compulsive spending. The editorial also proposes a research agenda spanning six areas, namely value creation for digital assets, the role of ownership and identity, monetization of digital assets, cultural factors in digital consumption , digital consumption in different markets and marketing strategies for digital consumption, that could guide future inquiry into digital asset consumption.