Playing cat and mouse: consumer empowerment and marketing interactions on the internet

Since the internet was first used in the business world, researchers have been asking whether consumers have more power when they make their purchases using this channel and whether this makes electronic markets more efficient. No definitive answers for these questions have yet been found. The current work analyses the power game between consumers and companies online. The work considers the sources of consumer empowerment on the internet and the marketing initiatives that firms develop, which sometimes reduce consumers' power. The work also analyses the impact of these two factors on electronic markets in light of evidence from the literature examining their supposed greater efficiency. The article identifies various sources of power for the online consumer and stresses that different groups of consumers exercise this power at different levels of intensity.