Technological Discrimination of Consumers of Goods Under the Conditions of Digital Development: The Essence of Sales Conflict, Its Manifestations, and Perspectives of Overcoming

Abstract

This chapter’s purpose is to check (prove or disprove) the argument in favour of technological discrimination of consumers of goods in the conditions of digital development, given the essence of sales conflict, its manifestations and perspectives of overcoming.

The literature review of the existing sources shows that they have an insufficient scientific basis for determining the essence of sales conflict, its manifestations, and perspectives of overcoming in the conditions of digital development and in view of technological discrimination of consumers of goods. To fill this gap in the system of scientific knowledge, the authors use the methods of comparative and correlation analysis of statistical data. The research objects are the top 10 countries from the G20, Latin America, the Caribbean, China, and the United States, which have the highest level of development of online trade and digitalization.

The authors perform an overview of the facts that determine that, from a scientific point of view, there are arguments in favour of technological discrimination of consumers of goods in the conditions of digital development from the position of the emergence of sales conflicts between companies and consumers of online goods. Modern economies are developing along the path of further increase in the technological gap between them, which could be caused by two reasons: differentiation in the level of socio-economic development of separate countries and their different susceptibility to the achievements of the digital economy and digital technologies. Countries with high innovative potential, but without effective innovative systems, undergo ‘digital transformation’. Countries with low innovative potential, but active borrowing and implementation of innovative technologies from abroad, undergo ‘digital adaptations’.

It is proved that the COVID-19 pandemic led to the change of consumer behaviour models, seriously influencing the structure of consumption. While the traditional retail trade is in stagnation, the sales volumes in the system of online commerce continue growing. Together with the development of online commerce, new types of conflicts emerge – they are caused by inequality in the level of technological and digital development of various countries of the world, as well as by discrimination of consumers.

Citation

Saenko, I.I., Savelyeva, N.K., Lysova, E.A. and Ostrovskaya, V.N. (2022), "Technological Discrimination of Consumers of Goods Under the Conditions of Digital Development: The Essence of Sales Conflict, Its Manifestations, and Perspectives of Overcoming", Popkova, E.G. and Chatterji, M. (Ed.) Technology, Society, and Conflict (Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development, Vol. 30), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 37-50. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1572-832320220000030005