Model of Consumer Behavior during the Digital Transformation of the Economy

This article explores the factors that influence consumer behavior under the conditions of technological changes and the accompanying social and economic externalities. The research goals were to develop a theory of consumer behavior and, based on such a theory, to consider a conceptual model of a digital consumer behavior during digital transformation. The authors systematized the theoretical approaches to understanding the models of consumer behavior and proposed to supplement the existing groups of models with incremental factors, which are caused by the impact of digitalization on society. Within this approach, network interaction algorithms can accurately predict the needs of each individual and suggest the most optimal way of meeting them. The authors developed a conceptual model of consumer behavior. In this model, on the one hand, the digital consumers are at the center of their own digital ecosystems tailored to their specific needs. On the other hand, using certain elements of the digital environment, they create digital footprints that are useful for other participants in the socioeconomic system. Considering this phenomenon allowed the authors to formulate and describe the social and economic externalities generated by the digitalization of consumption and include these in the proposed conceptual model of consumer behavior. Moreover, the authors studied the relationship between the use of digital technology and the socioeconomic development of countries. These countries were divided into clusters with different relationships between particular social parameters and varying levels of digital consumption. Having examined the dynamics of consumer price indices for certain groups of goods in the Russian Federation, the authors propose the hypothesis about the specifics of the digital consumption culture, which reduce both the transactional and direct costs for the consumer.