Transitioning to a Digital World

We live in a world that is increasingly digital, but not yet completely digital, which makes it quite interesting. The transition from the pre-digital age, just a few short years ago, to a new digital reality provides fertile ground for scholars to study a landscape that is shifting before our eyes (Lane & Levy, 2019). We are participant-observers in this great transformation, both recording changes as they occur while contributing to new waves of change. The next generation of not-yet-imagined digital technology and software applications will further transform markets, society, and everyday life (Hofacker, 2019).

This revolution has already impacted nearly every corner of modern life. Over the past two decades, digital technologies have profoundly altered marketing and consumption, and the change will continue in both expected and unexpected directions in the decades to come. Engineers and entrepreneurs, marketers, and ordinary consumers are constantly co-creating and updating the digital world, and their innovations are shared and adopted around the globe at unprecedented speed (Ratchford, 2019). These market disruptions not only offer excitement and opportunity but are also daunting and overwhelming to a great many consumers, companies, and institutions, struggling to keep up with the magnitude and pace of change (Dholakia, 2019).