The willingness of consumers to take part in consumer resistance in times of Web 2.0

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: The central topic of this master’s thesis is the growing power of consumers along with the associated likelihood of their resistance. Though in the past the manufacture controlled market activity, a shifting towards the consumer can be detected nowadays. Due to ongoing developments in the online world, it can be assumed that consumers will become even more powerful in the future. In other words, consumers are incrementally gaining importance so that through resistance they will become strong enough in influencing business decisions. Thus, in the long run the possibility of achieving a balance between consumers and producers is given. In this sense, the Internet is an especially important tool for increasing the power of people. While consumers have the possibility of accessing an unlimited amount of information, they are also able to be connected on a global level which makes the exchange of information easier. According to an estimation by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) there were 1.542 billion Internet users worldwide in 2008 which represents approximately a quarter of the world’s population. Taking into consideration that the amount of users has more than doubled within 5 years - compared to 721 million users in 2003, it can be assumed that the number of people with access to the Internet will also continue to grow in the future. Moreover, new applications which have arisen in the wake of Web 2.0 especially support the development towards more powerful consumers. Thanks to the permanently growing popularity of social media incorporating social networks such as Twitter, the trade of information and data between like-minded people is much easier and quicker. Theoretically, everybody can be informed about business practices of a certain company anywhere in the world. Consequently, global companies no longer have the possibility to hide any kind of information so the whole world becomes more transparent. Looking at consumption behaviour in postmodern times it can be realized that people are starting to consume more consciously. Out of the huge amount of highly diversified goods available consumers can choose those commodities which are most suitable for representing their identity. This means that they decide in reference to their personal selection criteria which brands they will consume. Hence, in order to better evaluate goods, information is sought before consumption. Especially anti-brand sites, [...]