Examples of academic and applied definitions of consumer vulnerability
| Source | Definition of consumer vulnerability | Key constructs | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andreasen and Manning (1990, p. 13) | “Those who are at a disadvantage in exchange relationships where that disadvantage is attributable to characteristics that are largely not controllable by them at the time of the transaction.” | At a disadvantage in exchange relationships Lack of control over characteristics | Social policy and consumer inequities |
| Smith and Cooper-Martin (1997, p. 4) | “define vulnerable consumers as those who are more susceptible to economic, physical, or psychological harm in, or as a result of, economic transactions because of characteristics that limit their ability to maximize their utility and well-being.” | Comparative vulnerability Individual characteristics | Marketing ethics and target marketing |
| Baker et al. (2005, p. 134) | “Consumer vulnerability is a state of powerlessness that arises from an imbalance in marketplace interactions or from the consumption of marketing messages and products. It occurs when control is not in an individual's hands, creating a dependence on external factors (e.g. marketers) to create fairness in the marketplace. The actual vulnerability arises from the interaction of personal states, personal characteristics and external conditions within a context where consumption goals may be hindered and the experience affects personal and social perceptions of self.” | State of powerlessness The interaction of individual characteristics, individual states and external conditions Experience of vulnerability in consumption context (p.135) | Marketing and consumer behavior |
| Halstead et al. (2007, p. 17) | “… disadvantaged consumers are defined as those consumers who lack various financial, social, intellectual, or physical resources necessary to function well in the marketplace and include vulnerable groups such as the poor, the elderly, minorities, the homeless, the illiterate and others.” | Expectation formation; interactional fairness; affect; satisfaction | Satisfaction theory in US health insurance industry |
| Shultz and Holbrook (2009, p. 124) | “We define two key consumer characteristics related to vulnerability: knowledge of beneficial means–ends relationships (analogous to cultural capital) and access to beneficial means (analogous to economic capital).” | Insufficient cultural and economic capital | Cultural capital and economic capital |
| Adkins and Jae (2010, p. 95) | “Consumer vulnerability entails a state of powerlessness manifesting when individual characteristics and fluctuating consumer states combine with structural and other socioenvironmental elements to produce conditions where marketplace imbalances or harm may occur as a result of consuming marketing messages and/or products.” | State of powerlessness The interaction of individual characteristics, individual states and external conditions Experience of vulnerability in consumption context | Language barriers faced by immigrant consumers |
| Rosenbaum et al. (2017, p. 310) | “Consumer vulnerability may arise from the interaction of individual states, individual characteristics and external conditions with a context where [a consumer's] consumption goals may be hindered.” | The interaction of individual states, individual characteristics and external conditions | Service contexts |
| Overton and O'Mahony (2018, p. 273) | This “new conception of consumer vulnerability” goes “beyond narrow, individualistic conceptions of vulnerability based on (limited) financial capability, toward a broader conception which takes account of the connection between individual circumstances, situations and market factors in causing or exacerbating manifestations of consumer vulnerability.” | Connection between individual circumstances, situations and market factors | Financial services contexts |
| Cheung and McColl-Kennedy (2019, p. 662) | “Cultural vulnerability … reinforced by the asymmetric access to cultural and economic capital in society.” | Third-party actors can improve social welfare of vulnerable consumers | Service contexts |
| Luna (2019, p. 88) | “We do not face “a solid and unique vulnerability” that exhausts the category. There might be different vulnerabilities, different layers operating. These layers may overlap” | Vulnerability as multi-layered | Bioethics |
| Johns and Davey (2019, p. 6) | “Vulnerable consumers as those whose individual characteristics or individual states interact with the environment to create a state of powerlessness in consumption situations such that their service exchange goals are not realised.” | Individual characteristics or states interact with the environment A state of powerlessness in consumption situations | Service contexts |
| Hill and Sharma (2020, p. 551) | “We define consumer vulnerability as a state in which consumers are subject to harm because their access to and control over resources are restricted in ways that significantly inhibit their ability to function in the marketplace.” | Restricted access to resources Limited control over resources Inability to function in the marketplace | Multiple contexts within extant literature |
| Riedel et al. (2022, p. 120) | “Consumers experiencing vulnerability refers to unique and subjective experiences where characteristics such as states, conditions and/or external factors lead to a consumer experiencing a sense of powerlessness in consumption settings.” | Unique and subjective experiences Individual characteristics (e.g. states, conditions) and external factors Sense of powerlessness in consumption settings | Multiple contexts within extant literature |
| Salisbury et al. (2023, p. 659) | A “dynamic state that varies along a continuum as people experience more or less susceptibility to harm, due to varying conditions and circumstances.” | Dynamic state of vulnerability Influence of varying conditions and circumstances | Customer's financial resources |
| Hermann et al. (2024, p. 1431) | “a dynamic state of powerlessness (Baker et al., 2005) and susceptibility to harm (Hill and Sharma, 2020; Salisbury et al., 2023), which can pertain to any consumer.” | Dynamic state which can impact any consumer | AI in services |
| Mende et al. (2024, p. 1302) | “We conceptualize a consumer's vulnerability state as a function of both the breadth and depth of their vulnerability. While breadth represents the number of indicators that contribute to the consumer's vulnerability, depth represents the degree of vulnerability within each of those factors.” | A function of both the breadth and depth of vulnerability Breadth: the number of contributing indicators, with four vulnerable contexts: socioeconomic status, household composition, minority status and language, housing and transportation Depth: the degree of vulnerability within each contributing indicator | Multiple contexts within extant literature |
| Finsterwalder et al. (2024, p. 8) | Multiple context where vulnerability is exacerbated – Digital, economic, educational, environmental, psychological, political and security, social isolation | Seven phenomena contributing to vulnerabilities in consumption contexts - (i) digital: limited access to information and communication technologies; (ii) economic: financial stress restricting access to desired goods and services; (iii) educational: gaps in learning or attainment; (iv) environmental: exposure to health risks from climate or pollution; (v) psychological: mental or cognitive conditions hindering consumption; (vi) political and security: instability undermining safety and trust; and (vii) social isolation: limited or absent supportive social networks | Multiple contexts within extant literature |
| Current paper authors | “Dynamic, subjective experiences of relative lower power and associated limitations to resource access in consumption settings, leading to economic, physical or psychological harm and/or reduced well-being through failure to realize all exchange goals, resulting from embodied characteristics, personal situation or external conditions.” | Impact of eight contexts within three vulnerability types: embodied characteristics, personal situation or external conditions | Multiple contexts within extant literature |
| Source | Definition of consumer vulnerability | Key constructs | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Those who are at a disadvantage in exchange relationships where that disadvantage is attributable to characteristics that are largely not controllable by them at the time of the transaction.” | At a disadvantage in exchange relationships | Social policy and consumer inequities | |
| “define vulnerable consumers as those who are more susceptible to economic, physical, or psychological harm in, or as a result of, economic transactions because of characteristics that limit their ability to maximize their utility and well-being.” | Comparative vulnerability | Marketing ethics and target marketing | |
| “Consumer vulnerability is a state of powerlessness that arises from an imbalance in marketplace interactions or from the consumption of marketing messages and products. It occurs when control is not in an individual's hands, creating a dependence on external factors (e.g. marketers) to create fairness in the marketplace. The actual vulnerability arises from the interaction of personal states, personal characteristics and external conditions within a context where consumption goals may be hindered and the experience affects personal and social perceptions of self.” | State of powerlessness | Marketing and consumer behavior | |
| “… disadvantaged consumers are defined as those consumers who lack various financial, social, intellectual, or physical resources necessary to function well in the marketplace and include vulnerable groups such as the poor, the elderly, minorities, the homeless, the illiterate and others.” | Expectation formation; interactional fairness; affect; satisfaction | Satisfaction theory in US health insurance industry | |
| “We define two key consumer characteristics related to vulnerability: knowledge of beneficial means–ends relationships (analogous to cultural capital) and access to beneficial means (analogous to economic capital).” | Insufficient cultural and economic capital | Cultural capital and economic capital | |
| “Consumer vulnerability entails a state of powerlessness manifesting when individual characteristics and fluctuating consumer states combine with structural and other socioenvironmental elements to produce conditions where marketplace imbalances or harm may occur as a result of consuming marketing messages and/or products.” | State of powerlessness | Language barriers faced by immigrant consumers | |
| “Consumer vulnerability may arise from the interaction of individual states, individual characteristics and external conditions with a context where [a consumer's] consumption goals may be hindered.” | The interaction of individual states, individual characteristics and external conditions | Service contexts | |
| This “new conception of consumer vulnerability” goes “beyond narrow, individualistic conceptions of vulnerability based on (limited) financial capability, toward a broader conception which takes account of the connection between individual circumstances, situations and market factors in causing or exacerbating manifestations of consumer vulnerability.” | Connection between individual circumstances, situations and market factors | Financial services contexts | |
| “Cultural vulnerability … reinforced by the asymmetric access to cultural and economic capital in society.” | Third-party actors can improve social welfare of vulnerable consumers | Service contexts | |
| “We do not face “a solid and unique vulnerability” that exhausts the category. There might be different vulnerabilities, different layers operating. These layers may overlap” | Vulnerability as multi-layered | Bioethics | |
| “Vulnerable consumers as those whose individual characteristics or individual states interact with the environment to create a state of powerlessness in consumption situations such that their service exchange goals are not realised.” | Individual characteristics or states interact with the environment | Service contexts | |
| “We define consumer vulnerability as a state in which consumers are subject to harm because their access to and control over resources are restricted in ways that significantly inhibit their ability to function in the marketplace.” | Restricted access to resources | Multiple contexts within extant literature | |
| “Consumers experiencing vulnerability refers to unique and subjective experiences where characteristics such as states, conditions and/or external factors lead to a consumer experiencing a sense of powerlessness in consumption settings.” | Unique and subjective experiences | Multiple contexts within extant literature | |
| A “dynamic state that varies along a continuum as people experience more or less susceptibility to harm, due to varying conditions and circumstances.” | Dynamic state of vulnerability | Customer's financial resources | |
| “a dynamic state of powerlessness ( | Dynamic state which can impact any consumer | AI in services | |
| “We conceptualize a consumer's vulnerability state as a function of both the breadth and depth of their vulnerability. While breadth represents the number of indicators that contribute to the consumer's vulnerability, depth represents the degree of vulnerability within each of those factors.” | A function of both the breadth and depth of vulnerability | Multiple contexts within extant literature | |
| Multiple context where vulnerability is exacerbated – Digital, economic, educational, environmental, psychological, political and security, social isolation | Seven phenomena contributing to vulnerabilities in consumption contexts - (i) | Multiple contexts within extant literature | |
| Current paper authors | “Dynamic, subjective experiences of relative lower power and associated limitations to resource access in consumption settings, leading to economic, physical or psychological harm and/or reduced well-being through failure to realize all exchange goals, resulting from embodied characteristics, personal situation or external conditions.” | Impact of eight contexts within three vulnerability types: embodied characteristics, personal situation or external conditions | Multiple contexts within extant literature |