Consumer Responses to Data-Driven Digital Environments: Exploring Behavioural and Well-Being Outcomes

About the Project

The proliferation of data-driven digital environments has fundamentally reshaped how consumers interact with brands, platforms, and marketplaces (Shah & Murti, 2021). Personalized recommendations, algorithmic advertising, and curated content increasingly define consumers’ online experiences, with substantial effects on behavior and psychology (Eg, Tønnesen, & Tennfjord, 2023; ). While research has examined firm benefits of personalization (Kamel, 2023; Chen, Chen, & Yongrui Duan, 2022), significantly less attention has been paid to understanding these developments from the consumer’s perspective and their broader consequences for trust, satisfaction, empowerment, and well-being. Consumers today simultaneously benefit from and are challenged by digital personalization, raising questions about autonomy, perceived control, and long-term loyalty.

This PhD project seeks to investigate how consumers experience and respond to data-driven digital interactions, focusing specifically on key consumer outcomes such as trust, satisfaction, empowerment, perceived transparency, and behavioral intentions. Drawing on customer engagement theory and privacy-calculus perspectives, the research will examine how consumers’ perceptions of personalization shape outcomes including purchase intentions, brand attachment, decision confidence, and future engagement behavior. Importantly, the project will also explore potential negative effects due to perceived algorithmic manipulation, which have been linked to adverse consumer responses in digital settings.

The project will review the existing literature in area of interest to propose a research model to be tested using a number of techniques and skills including - but not limited to data collection and analysis using SPSS & AMOS/SmartPLS (Quantitative analysis) and/or Nvivo (qualitative analysis). This project aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and contributes to SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) by advancing knowledge on responsible digital transformation.

Supervisors

• Anish Yousaf
• Gomaa Agag
• Feray Adiguzel