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Journal of Indian Business Research

ISSN : 1755-4195

Article publication date: 20 February 2023

Issue publication date: 3 March 2023

This study aims to analyze the available literature on the use of digital marketing and its impact on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study identifies the use of digital marketing practices and its impact on SMEs.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic literature review has been conducted on digital marketing, and its implementation in SMEs. The impact of digital marketing on SMEs performance is observed over the past 12 years through the resources which are undertaken for the study, namely, Science Direct, Scopus, Springer, IEEE Explorer, ACM Digital Library, Engineering Village, ISI Web of Knowledge database is used to search the research publications on the selected topic.

Although some SME firms use digital marketing, their impact is not similar where we can recommend a fixed strategy for applying digital marketing. This review provides an insight into how digital marketing has evolved over the period of time and how SMEs are adopting it for their sustenance.

Practical implications

This study will give theoretical analysis of various benefits received by SMEs because of digital marketing in the different capacities helping organizations to uplift their productivity. Mind mapping will give the idea of impact of SMEs on their various performances in rural as well as in the urban areas. This study will give further scope for digital marketers to approach those industries specifically at rural parts of the nation for bringing change into their marketing operations and also for increasing turnover by the use of digital marketing.

Originality/value

Research on the use of digital marketing by SMEs firms is still at the embryonic stage in India. This study is a pioneering effort to review the use of digital marketing in SMEs and identify research priorities for scholars and practitioners.

• Literature review
• Digital marketing
• Small and medium enterprises
• Impact on SMEs

Jadhav, G.G. , Gaikwad, S.V. and Bapat, D. (2023), "A systematic literature review: digital marketing and its impact on SMEs", Journal of Indian Business Research , Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 76-91. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIBR-05-2022-0129

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

The impact of interactive advertising on consumer engagement, recall, and understanding: A scoping systematic review for informing regulatory science

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation RTI International, Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC, United States of America

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Roles Data curation, Writing – review & editing

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Office of Prescription Drug Promotion, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, US Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

• Kristen Giombi, 
• Catherine Viator, 
• Juliana Hoover, 
• Janice Tzeng, 
• Helen W. Sullivan, 
• Amie C. O’Donoghue, 
• Brian G. Southwell, 
• Leila C. Kahwati

• Published: February 3, 2022
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263339
• Reader Comments

We conducted a scoping systematic review with respect to how consumer engagement with interactive advertising is evaluated and if interactive features influence consumer recall, awareness, or comprehension of product claims and risk disclosures for informing regulatory science. MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Business Source Corporate, and SCOPUS were searched for original research published from 1997 through February 2021. Two reviewers independently screened titles/abstracts and full-text articles for inclusion. Outcomes were abstracted into a structured abstraction form. We included 32 studies overall. The types of interactive ads evaluated included website banner and pop up ads, search engine ads, interactive TV ads, advergames, product websites, digital magazine ads, and ads on social network sites. Twenty-three studies reported objective measures of engagement using observational analyses or laboratory-based experiments. In nine studies evaluating the association between different interactivity features and outcomes, the evidence was mixed on whether more interactivity improves or worsens recall and comprehension. Studies vary with respect to populations, designs, ads evaluated, and outcomes assessed.

Citation: Giombi K, Viator C, Hoover J, Tzeng J, Sullivan HW, O’Donoghue AC, et al. (2022) The impact of interactive advertising on consumer engagement, recall, and understanding: A scoping systematic review for informing regulatory science. PLoS ONE 17(2): e0263339. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263339

Editor: Qihong Liu, University of Oklahama Norman Campus: The University of Oklahoma, UNITED STATES

Received: September 15, 2021; Accepted: January 15, 2022; Published: February 3, 2022

This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.

Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.

Funding: Funded through a contract from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to RTI International (Contract 75F40120A00017, Order Number 75F40120F19003). KG, CV, JH, JT, BS, LK are employees of RTI International. HS and AO are employees of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. HS and AO (employees of the sponsor) participated in the study design, decision to publish, and critically reviewed the manuscript prior to submission.

Competing interests: HS and AO are employees of the study sponsor. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

1. Introduction

In 2020, it is estimated that nearly $356 billion was spent on digital advertising in the United States [ 1 ]. Much of this advertising consists of display ads, social media ads, search engine marketing, and email marketing often with interactive components to target the 85% of US adults who go online daily [ 2 ]. An interactive ad encourages consumers to interact with the ad (and thus the brand), rather than just passively view the ad. Although interactivity is often considered a vital element of successful online advertising [ 3 , 4 ], its impact on consumer engagement and decision-making is not entirely clear.

The academic definition of interactive advertising has evolved and varied at least in part as possibilities for ad design and placement have shifted, meaning interactive advertising can be defined differently depending on the context. Experts have defined interactive ads in terms of processes, features, and/or user perceptions, and no consensus about the definition has been reached to date [ 5 – 14 ]. Conceptual frameworks considered by researchers in approaching interactive advertising have tended to include descriptions of how users behave in response to ads [ 13 , 15 – 17 ]. Metrics employed by the advertising industry also have shifted over time. The operationalization of interactive advertising often has been determined by the conceptual framework used and the outcome of interest to the researcher.

With an increased presence of interactive advertising in digital and social media [ 18 ], it is critical to understand how consumers engage with these types of advertisements and whether interactive features influence consumer recall, awareness, or comprehension of product claims and risk disclosures. This is of particular importance for products or services for which advertising content is regulated, such as prescription drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and financial products or services, to ensure that such advertising does not introduce barriers or challenges to consumer understanding of risks associated with such products. Especially within the past decade, regulatory science researchers have embraced the tools of social science to assess consumer perceptions of risk as well as potential impediments to consumer understanding [ 19 , 20 ]. Social science research can offer evidence of advertising effects on consumer perceptions, and agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have used such approaches to assess consumer engagement with different types of advertisements, such as direct-to-consumer prescription drug television ads [ 21 ]. In order to assess whether interactive advertising poses new theoretical challenges or opportunities, we conducted a scoping systematic review to summarize the research related to consumer engagement with interactive advertisements and impact on recall and understanding of product claims and risk disclosures.

The protocol for this scoping review was registered at Open Science Framework on October 26, 2020 [ 22 ]. The goal of this scoping systematic review was to describe the extant literature on interactive advertising and consumer engagement, particularly as it concerned regulated product advertising and its influence on comprehension of product claims and risk disclosures. We designed the four research questions (RQs) that guided this scoping review to identify gaps in the evidence base and summarize important considerations needed to inform the design and conduct of future primary research studies in this area. The four RQs were:

• RQ 1: What methods and measures are used to evaluate consumer engagement with interactive advertisements in empirical studies?
• RQ 2: In empirical studies of interactive advertising in naturalistic or real-world contexts, to what extent do consumers engage with interactive advertisements?
• RQ 3: What is the association between features of interactive advertisements for goods or services and consumer engagement, recall, awareness, or comprehension of product claims and risk disclosures?
• RQ 4: How do interactive advertisements for goods and services compare to non-interactive advertisements (e.g., traditional print or broadcast advertisements) with respect to consumer engagement, recall, awareness, and comprehension of product claims and risk disclosures?

2.1 Search and data sources

We searched MEDLINE via PubMed, PsycINFO, Business Source Corporate, and SCOPUS for original research published in English from January 1, 1997, through February 17, 2021, using search terms related to advertising and marketing, internet, and the outcomes of interest (e.g., engagement, knowledge, click-through rate). Little research on digital advertising was conducted prior to the mid-1990s, and our preliminary evidence scan showed very few papers published prior to 1997. The detailed search strategy is in S1 Appendix . We also searched reference lists of systematic and narrative reviews and editorials where relevant.

2.2 Study selection

Two reviewers independently screened titles/abstracts and full-text articles for inclusion based on study selection criteria for each research question. Disagreements at the full-text review stage were resolved by a third reviewer. Detailed study selection criteria are described in S2 Appendix . In brief, we included all studies among persons of any age in the general public who were characterized as being a potential consumer target for interactive advertising. For all RQs, we included studies that examined exposure to interactive advertisements, which we defined as the promotion of a product, service, or idea using various features or tools that provide the opportunity for persons to interact directly with the ad and potentially influence/inform the remaining sequence, appearance, or content to be presented about the product, service, or idea. For RQ 2, we included only studies with exposure to interactive advertising in naturalistic or real-world contexts. For RQ 3, studies that compared alternative versions of advertisements with interactive elements that varied with respect to the type or level of interactivity were selected. For RQ 4, studies that compared interactive advertisements with traditional advertising (i.e., print ads, broadcast ads, or online/internet ads without interactive elements) were included.

Eligible outcomes varied by RQ. For RQ 1, we included studies with any measure of consumer engagement. For RQ 2, we required objective measures of engagement such as time spent viewing, content navigation, click-through rates, page views, shares, likes, or leaving comments. For RQs 3 and 4, we required studies to report outcomes including consumer recall, awareness, and comprehension of product claims, risk disclosures, or both. Lastly, we included only studies conducted in countries designated as very highly developed per the United Nations Human Development Index to maximize applicability to decision-makers in such settings [ 23 ].

2.3 Data abstraction and synthesis

For each article included, one reviewer abstracted relevant study characteristics and outcomes into a structured abstraction form, and a second senior reviewer checked the form for completeness and accuracy. We narratively synthesized findings for each RQ by summarizing the characteristics and results of the included studies in narrative and tabular formats. Because this was designed as a scoping review, we did not conduct risk of bias assessments on included studies, quantitatively synthesize findings, or conduct strength of evidence assessments.

We screened 3,765 titles and abstracts and 136 full-text articles. We included 32 studies published in 33 articles ( Fig 1 ) [ 7 , 24 – 55 ]. Twenty-three studies addressed RQ 1, eight studies addressed RQ 2, nine studies addressed RQ 3, and four studies addressed RQ 4. An overview of included studies is provided in Table S4-1 in S4 Appendix . A list of full-text studies that we reviewed and excluded is provided in the S3 Appendix .

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3.1 Research question 1: What methods and measures are used to evaluate consumer engagement with interactive advertisements in empirical studies?

3.1.1 study characteristics..

We identified 23 studies eligible for RQ 1 that were published between the years 1997 and 2019 and conducted across multiple countries [ 24 – 30 , 33 , 35 – 42 , 46 , 47 , 50 – 53 ]. An overview of the studies is in Table S4-1 and S4-2 in S4 Appendix . Six were observational studies evaluating consumer response to real-world advertisements or campaigns [ 24 , 25 , 28 – 30 , 37 ]. The rest of the studies were experiments conducted in laboratory or controlled environments. The sample sizes across the included studies ranged from 20 to 116,168 participants; however, two studies [ 29 , 30 ] did not report the number of persons participating in the study.

The types of interactive advertisements evaluated varied across the included studies. Six studies [ 26 , 33 , 35 , 40 , 47 , 50 ] evaluated banner ads, three studies [ 7 , 36 , 46 ] evaluated product websites, three studies [ 29 , 30 , 41 ] evaluated paid search engine ads, three studies [ 38 , 51 , 52 ] evaluated interactive television ads, two studies [ 24 , 27 ] evaluated social network site ads, one study [ 39 ] evaluated a pop-up ad and the rest of the studies evaluated other types of digital ads. This included short-message-service TV marketing [ 37 ], an ad with a video clip embedded in a digital magazine [ 42 ], ads within a simulated online store [ 53 ], and combinations of different types of digital and online ads [ 25 , 30 ]. The type of products advertised across the included studies included unregulated consumer products (e.g., digital cameras) and services (e.g., travel planning); regulated products and services (car insurance, financial); and health/health behavior campaigns.

3.1.2 Findings.

An overview of findings is in Fig 2 . Authors of the six observational studies reported engagement outcomes associated with real-world advertising or marketing campaigns [ 24 , 25 , 28 – 30 , 37 ]. Authors of four studies reported objective measures of the proportion of users exposed to an ad that clicked on the ad (i.e., “click-through rates”) by using platform-specific (e.g., Facebook, Google AdWords) analytic tools for advertisers [ 24 , 29 ], specialized web tracking software that members of a market research panel consented to have installed on their computers to monitor web behavior [ 28 ], or a unique event identifier created on the advertiser’s server whenever an online ad was clicked [ 30 ]. Authors of the other two observational studies reported subjective measures of engagement. In one study, authors used audio, computer-assisted self-interviews that asked respondents about their engagement with online marketing of a specific class of product [ 25 ]. In the other study, authors used post-campaign surveys (mode not specified) to evaluate engagement outcomes [ 37 ].

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263339.g002

Authors of the 17 experimental studies reported engagement outcomes from experiments using actual real-world ads or from experiments using fictitious ads designed specifically for the experiment. Authors of the experimental studies controlled participant exposure to the ads, and depending on the measure, outcome measurement occurred either concurrently with the ad exposure or through completion of post-exposure surveys or interviews.

Two of the experimental studies used objective measures of ad engagement employing eye-tracking technologies during exposure to evaluate user engagement with digital ads placed on online platforms (Facebook page, blog, and industry-specific search engine) [ 26 , 50 ]. In Muñoz-Leiva, Hernández-Méndez, and Gómez-Carmona [ 26 ] the ads used were fictitious, and the sites they were placed on were mocked up to resemble existing platforms (e.g., Facebook). In Barreto [ 50 ], each participant’s own Facebook page and the authentic Facebook page for a specific brand of athletic shoe was used. In both studies, authors first calibrated the eye-tracking equipment for each participant, then assigned one or more tasks for the participants to complete (e.g., navigate to find a specific item). The eye-tracking technology measured fixation counts and duration of fixation on the ad portion of the screens as participants navigated through the task.

Seven of the experimental studies were designed using a within- or between-subjects randomized factorial design or both [ 27 , 33 , 36 , 38 , 41 , 51 , 52 ]. In these studies, authors manipulated two or more ad features, including message/information content, tone, amount, or presentation order; images; screen placement; and level of interactivity. Eight of the experimental studies were parallel-group randomized experiments with one group assigned to a manipulated ad exposure in one or more ways and the other group assigned to a control ad exposure [ 7 , 35 , 39 , 40 , 42 , 46 , 47 , 53 ]. In both types of experimental studies, measures of ad engagement varied and included both subjective (e.g., user intentions as to whether they would click the ad or like or share the ad post) and objective measures (e.g., actual click-through rates on ads encountered, view duration tracked by computer). Nearly all studies also measured additional outcomes such as attitudes toward ads, ad or brand recall, or purchase intentions through post-exposure surveys.

3.2 Research question 2: In empirical studies of interactive advertising in naturalistic or real-world contexts, to what extent do consumers engage with interactive advertisements?

3.2.1 study characteristics..

Eight studies addressed RQ 2; these were published between 2006 and 2019 (Table S4-3 in S4 Appendix ) [ 24 , 28 – 31 , 39 , 47 , 54 ]. Six were observational studies [ 24 , 28 – 31 , 54 ], and two studies were experimental but conducted in real-world (i.e., not laboratory) settings [ 39 , 47 ]. The sample sizes across the included studies ranged from 30,638 to 2,000,000 participants. The types of interactive advertisements evaluated varied and could include more than one type of ad. Three studies evaluated banner ads [ 28 , 30 , 47 ], two studies evaluated social network site ads [ 24 , 31 ], and one study evaluated a pop-up ad [ 39 ]. Three studies evaluated other types of digital ads including paid search engine ads and video ads [ 28 , 29 , 54 ]. The type of products advertised across the included studies included unregulated consumer products and services and health/health behavior campaigns.

Authors measured consumer engagement with click-through rates; page views; and/or number of “likes,” comments, or shares on social media. The two experimental studies analyzed click-through rates for banner and pop-up ads [ 39 , 47 ], while the six observational studies analyzed click-through rates for banner ads [ 28 , 30 ], search ads [ 28 – 30 , 54 ], and social media interaction [ 24 , 31 ].

3.2.2 Findings.

An overview of findings is in Fig 3 . The level of engagement by consumers varied across studies. Six studies reported click-through rates ranging from 0.02% to 2.30% [ 24 , 29 , 31 , 39 , 47 , 54 ]. Two of these studies also reported differences in click-through rates when selected characteristics of the ad were varied, such as differences on which page the ad was placed, a variable delay before the ad was displayed [ 39 ], or whether the ads were static or morphing and whether they were context matched to the website on which they were placed [ 47 ]. In contrast to other studies reporting click-through rates, Graham et al. [ 30 ] reported a much higher click-through rate (81.6%); this study used ads to recruit individuals to a website to register for smoking cessation treatment.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263339.g003

Other measures of consumer engagement beyond click-through rates included number of page views (after clicking through an ad) and interactions such as liking, sharing, or posting comments to ads on social networking platforms. Two studies measured page views, which is the number of pages the viewer visited after going to the landing site [ 29 , 39 ]. In Birnbaum et al. [ 29 ] the median number of pages visited on the website (not including other relevant websites that were linked on the study site) was 1.29. Moe [ 39 ] measured the difference in number of page views when users were exposed to the ad on a gateway page of an informational website compared with exposure to the ad from a content page of the website. The mean number of page views after an ad on a content page (6.31) was higher than page views after an ad on a gateway page (4.86, P < .001), suggesting greater engagement from consumers when involved in the content.

Two studies measured interactive engagement with social media ads through “likes” and shares [ 24 , 31 ]. Horrell et al. [ 24 ] defined levels of consumer engagement as “low” if a consumer liked a page or reacted to a post and “medium” if a consumer shared or commented on a post. Over a 5-week advertising campaign targeted to 91,385 users of a specific Facebook page site targeting lung cancer awareness, the page had 2,602 reactions to posts, 149 page likes, 452 shares, and 157 comments [ 24 ]. Similarly, Platt et al. [ 31 ] reported findings from a 1-month time period in which a Michigan biobank advertising campaign was targeted to an estimated 2 million state residents aged 18 to 28. The campaign’s social media presence garnered 516 page likes, 477 ad likes, 25 page post shares, and 30 entries into an advertised photo contest. This study also reported that a greater percentage of viewers clicked an ad or post they saw when it was associated with the name of a friend who had already liked the Facebook page [ 31 ].

3.3 Research question 3: What is the association between features of interactive advertisements for goods or services and consumer engagement, recall, awareness, or comprehension of product claims and risk disclosures?

3.3.1 study characteristics..

We identified nine studies eligible for RQ 3 that were published between the years 1997 and 2019 (Tables S4-4 and S4-5 in S4 Appendix ) [ 26 , 32 , 34 , 36 , 43 – 45 , 51 , 53 ]. Eight studies were conducted as experiments [ 26 , 32 , 34 , 36 , 43 , 44 , 51 , 53 ], and the remaining study was a meta-analysis [ 45 ]. The sample sizes across the included primary research studies ranged from 60 to 1,600 participants. The type of advertisements evaluated varied. Four studies [ 32 , 34 , 36 , 44 ] evaluated product websites, one study [ 26 ] evaluated banner ads, one study [ 43 ] evaluated both banner ads and advergames, and two studies [ 51 , 53 ] evaluated other types of digital ads (e.g., interactive TV ads and interactive ads in a simulated online store). The included studies manipulated the ad stimuli to vary the level of interactivity or the type of interactive features included in the ad. Interactive features used in these studies included clickable hyperlinks, navigation bars, navigation buttons, rollover and clickable animation, responsive chat features, comment forms, and interactive game elements. The type of products advertised across the included studies included unregulated consumer products and services as well as regulated products or services.

The meta-analysis reported on 63 experimental studies (total N = 13,484) that evaluated how web interactivity affects various psychological outcomes and how those effects are moderated [ 45 ]. Of the included studies, half focused on interactivity within an advertising context, and 25% reported cognition outcomes, the only outcomes of relevance to this review.

3.3.2 Findings.

An overview of findings is in Fig 4 . In the meta-analysis, Yang and Shen [ 45 ] defined cognition measures such as comprehension, elaboration, knowledge acquisition, and recall. The authors reported no significant association between interactivity and cognition (correlation coefficient 0.05, P = .25). Across the eight primary research studies for this RQ, outcomes varied widely by level or type of interactivity. Five of the studies measured consumer recall of the brand, product, or service advertised [ 32 , 34 , 36 , 43 , 44 ]. Four of these involved websites or web pages with varying levels of interactivity [ 32 , 34 , 36 , 44 ].

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263339.g004

In Chung and Zhao [ 36 ], undergraduate university students viewed websites advertising cameras, which were classified as either low, medium, or high interactivity based on the number of hyperlinks included. They found a significant association between a higher number of clicks available and higher memory scores [ 36 ].

In Chung and Ahn [ 32 ], authors asked participants to view either a website with a linear structure (scroll to bottom of page and click link to move to next page), an interactive structure (multiple links available on the page), or a mixed linear and interactive structure and asked them to write down all the product information they could recall after exposure [ 32 ]. The authors found that participants who viewed the linear web page exhibited the highest memory score [ 32 ].

In Macias [ 44 ], participants viewed either a low or high interactivity website that advertised one of two consumer products. The high interactivity websites included rollover animation, hyperlinks, comment forms, and chat features. The authors found that participants who viewed the high interactivity website exhibited greater comprehension [ 44 ].

Polster et al. [ 34 ] reported the results of a study comparing interactive and noninteractive versions of a website with important safety information (ISI) about a fictitious medication viewed either on a desktop computer or smartphone. Authors found that a higher percentage of participants allocated to noninteractive websites saw any ISI as measured through objective clicking and scrolling behavior compared with participants who were allocated to the interactive websites ( P < .001). Further, a higher proportion of desktop-using participants allocated to noninteractive websites recalled at least one relevant side effect compared with participants allocated to the interactive websites ( P < .001) [ 34 ]. A higher proportion of participants using a smartphone allocated to noninteractive websites also had higher recall of at least one relevant side effect compared with participants who were allocated to interactive sites, but this finding was only statistically significant for one of the two noninteractive layouts [ 34 ]. Authors also reported the mean percentage correct recognition of medication side effects and conducted additional analyses of recognition limited to those participants who saw any ISI (Table S4-4 in S4 Appendix ).

Finally, in Daems et al. [ 43 ], Belgian secondary students viewed ads for a fictitious smartphone that were either interactive advergames, static in-game ads, interactive banner ads, or noninteractive banner ads. Authors found that interactive banner ads led to the highest percentage of participants exhibiting brand recognition (60.4%), followed by static in-game ads (22.4%), noninteractive banner ads (21.3%), and finally advergames (14.3%) [ 43 ]. They also found that interactive banner ads led to the highest memory of product characteristics (8.22 out of a 12-point scale), while noninteractive banner ads led to the lowest memory (3.87) [ 43 ].

Three studies measured time spent viewing ads and results were mixed [ 26 , 51 , 53 ]. In Cauberghe and De Pelsmacker [ 51 ], participants from a Belgian market research firm watched a Dutch travel agency interactive TV ad with low, medium, or high interactivity. The interactivity level varied based on the presence of clickable links, navigation bars, and two-way communication. The authors reported significantly more time spent viewing the high interactivity ad (6.1 minutes) than the low interactivity ad (4.4 minutes) [ 51 ]. In Yang [ 53 ], each participant viewed one interactive ad and one noninteractive ad for one of two consumer products. The high interactivity ads offered more user control over order of information, duration of each page, and ability to skip information. Authors found that interactive ads were viewed for less time than noninteractive ads ( P < .01) [ 53 ]. In Muñoz-Leiva et al. [ 26 ], the authors compared “Travel 2.0 websites” with embedded vertical banner ads on 3 different platforms: a Facebook page, a blog, and a Tripadvisor page that varied by level of interactivity [ 26 ]. While the banner ads on all three platforms included a call to action and a clickable link to an airline website, the Facebook ad was the most interactive with the ability to like, comment, and share the ad followed by the blog with the ability to comment on the blog post and finally the Tripadvisor page. The authors used eye-tracking technology to measure the number of visual fixations on the ad, number of seconds until the first fixation on the ad, and total duration of fixations on the ad. They found a significant difference in the number of ad fixations (Facebook, 19.1; blog, 11.7; Tripadvisor (6.1), P < .001). Significant differences were also observed across platforms for other measures (Table S4-5 in S4 Appendix ) [ 26 ].

3.4 Research question 4: How do interactive advertisements for goods and services compare with noninteractive advertisements (e.g., traditional print or broadcast advertisements) with respect to consumer engagement, recall, awareness, and comprehension of product claims and risk disclosures?

3.4.1 study characteristics..

We identified three studies eligible for RQ 4 that were published between the years 2008 and 2018 (Table S4-6 in S4 Appendix ) [ 30 , 48 , 49 ]. One was an observational study [ 30 ], and the other two studies were conducted as experiments. The sample sizes for the two experiments were 233 [ 49 ] and 9,902 [ 48 ] participants; the observational study [ 30 ] did not report the number of persons evaluated. The types of interactive advertisements varied. The observational study [ 30 ] compared banner ads and paid search ads (interactive advertising) with billboards, TV ads, radio ads, outdoor signage, direct mail, and physician detailing (noninteractive advertising). One experimental study [ 48 ] had print flyer, online flyer, and no flyer groups, while the other experimental study [ 49 ] compared a standard TV commercial, a PC advergame, and an interactive TV commercial offering an advergame.

Eligible outcomes for this review reported across the three included studies also varied. The observational study [ 30 ] evaluated outcomes associated with real-world advertising including the number of log-ins and pages viewed, session length, and long-term cookies. Authors of the two experimental studies [ 48 , 49 ] randomized participants to different ad types and evaluated recall in addition to other outcomes such as attitudes, which were not within the scope of this review.

3.4.2 Findings.

An overview of findings is in Fig 5 . Across the three included studies, outcomes varied widely. Graham et al. [ 30 ] examined how online advertising increases consumer demand for smoking cessation treatments in Minnesota and New Jersey (N = NR) by comparing the impact of interactive advertisements (banner ads, paid search ads) versus traditional advertisements (billboards, TV ads, radio ads, outdoor signage, direct mail, physician detailing). Outcomes related to engagement are reported in the RQ 2 section of this review. Ultimately, 9.1% of those who clicked the interactive ad registered for treatment compared with 18.6% of those who were directed to the website from traditional media [ 30 ]. The authors found that compared with traditional ads, online ads engaged a higher percentage of males, young adults, racial/ethnic minorities, individuals with a high school education or less, and dependent smokers. While the authors found significant differences in website engagement metrics (e.g., average session length, pages viewed, percentage posting in public forums) between online and traditional ad responders, they noted that the differences in utilization are too small in magnitude to be meaningful.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263339.g005

Ieva et al. [ 48 ] estimated the effect of an online versus print promotional advertising flyer on customer response with an experimental design recruiting from a random sample of customers from a supermarket chain (N = 9,902; however, only the 303 that reported viewing the flyer were included in the analysis). The online flyer was a replication of the print flyer with no banners, videos, or embedded links; however, users could click to zoom or move to another page. The authors found no statistically significant differences in recall, recognition, or advertisement memory measures between the online and print flyers.

Bellman et al. [ 49 ] compared the effectiveness of PC advergames, TV commercials, and interactive commercials enhanced with advergames on recall for four test brands of food or personal hygiene products in an experimental study. Members of an Australian audience panel (N = 233) were randomized to one of three ad types. The authors reported significantly higher unaided recall of at least three unique points about the ad content for participants who viewed the PC advergame compared with those who viewed the traditional TV commercial and as compared with the interactive TV ad. Authors observed no significant difference between participants who viewed the interactive TV commercial and the traditional TV commercial.

4. Discussion

4.1 summary of evidence.

Study design and outcomes varied widely within the evidence base for each RQ. That variation itself is noteworthy, as it affects comparability of results and suggests strengths and weaknesses of different approaches for future research in this arena. Through this review, we also can see ways in which existing literature may not yet be optimal for answering questions about consumer risk perception and decision making in response to interactive advertising; much available evidence focuses on indicators of short-term consumer attention in engaging with advertising more than on consumer information processing beyond eyeball movement or click behavior.

Within the 23 studies eligible for RQ 1 (which summarized methods and measures used to evaluate consumer engagement), six were observational studies and 17 were experimental studies. In the experimental studies, methods included within- and between-subjects randomized factorial design and parallel-group randomized experiments. In both types of studies, objective (e.g., click-through rates, eye-tracking metrics) and subjective (e.g., post-campaign surveys, interviews) measures were used to report engagement outcomes. This variability in methods is understandable. Some measures of engagement are most optimally assessed with experimental designs that allow control over content and resource-intensive measurement of respondents (e.g., eye-tracking metrics). Observational studies nonetheless also can offer objective measures of engagement on a larger scale and without the generalizability concerns stemming from volunteer bias inherent to small sample-sized experimental designs. We also did find examples of large-scale experiments [ 39 , 42 ] involving manipulation of advertising stimuli conducted with various kinds of media (digital magazine, websites publishing reviews, news, or information).

Based on this review, consumer engagement is an umbrella concept covering a range of operationalization efforts. The ways in which studies measured engagement reflect 1) varying levels of technologic sophistication of the advertising platform or ad itself, 2) the salience of click-through rates as a metric in commercial advertising (regardless of the theoretical value of that metric to understanding consumer decision making), and 3) varying levels of integration into a broader social media campaign. We did not identify any differences in the way engagement was measured for regulated versus non-regulated products in this scoping review, per se, but the number of studies focused on regulated products or services also was quite limited. Future research on consumer engagement with interactive ads for regulated products should be able to use both observational or experimental designs, depending on the specific outcomes in question.

For RQ 2, eight identified studies reported on the extent to which consumers engage with interactive advertisements in naturalistic or real-world contexts. Consumer engagement was measured with click-through rates; page views; and/or number of “likes,” comments, or shares on social media. Click-through rate was the most common engagement measure used for this RQ; however, the way in which click-through-rates were calculated varied, limiting direct head-to-head comparisons across studies. A click-through rate may offer a conceptually simple way of measuring consumer engagement because it is closely aligned to the evaluation of cost-per-thousand advertisement impressions (i.e., cost-per-mille) and cost-per-click advertising campaigns. In practice, however, variability in click-through rate calculation limits the ability of current literature to offer definitive conclusions related to the concept. Moreover, in the context of evaluating regulated advertising, crude click-through-rates of a single hyperlink in a digital ad may not be enough to provide a nuanced understanding of whether users engage with specific parts of an ad, specifically, claims of benefits, risk disclosures, or both.

For RQ 3, we identified nine studies, eight of which were experiments, that focused on the association between features of interactive ads and consumer engagement, recall, awareness, or comprehension of product claims and risk disclosures. The studies varied the type or level of interactivity in the ad. Some studies found significant associations between higher levels of interactivity and higher memory scores, comprehension, and brand recognition. Other studies found the opposite: better recall and higher memory scores with fewer interactive features. Studies that measured time spent viewing the ads also had mixed results: one study found higher levels of interactivity led to more time spent viewing the ad, whereas one study found the opposite. Further, a meta-analysis reported no correlation between interactivity and measures of cognition.

The evidence for clear relationships between interactive features and outcomes of interest for this scoping review was mixed, precluding any definitive conclusions. Further, some studies addressing this RQ were published during an early era of online advertising that has faded in relevance to present circumstances. Importantly, we also found instances of confounding. In addition to manipulating interactivity, advertisers often manipulated other aspects of the ad not related to interactivity (e.g., tone, text or graphic content). Previous studies have demonstrated that for regulated products, such as prescription drugs, these features moderate consumer understanding of product claims and risk disclosures [ 21 , 56 ]. Thus, future studies evaluating variations in interactive ads of regulated products and services should ensure that study designs and ad manipulations are robust for evaluating independent effects and potential interactions.

For RQ 4, three identified studies compared interactive with noninteractive advertisements with respect to consumer engagement, recall, awareness, and comprehension of product claims and risk disclosures. One observational study found that compared with traditional ads, online ads engaged certain segments of the population better. The two experimental studies found no significant differences between the interactive and traditional ads, but one study found significantly higher unaided recall for participants who viewed a PC advergame compared with those who viewed the traditional or the interactive ads. With the mixed results from this limited number of heterogeneous studies, there is no conclusive evidence on how interactive advertisements compare with noninteractive advertisements with respect to consumer engagement, recall, awareness, and comprehension of product claims and risk disclosures. The limited number of studies may reflect the challenge in conducting direct comparisons of traditional and interactive advertising in the same study. Digital and online advertising offer new and, in some cases, more objective ways of measuring advertising effectiveness that have no counterpart in the evaluation of traditional advertising. Given shifts away from traditional advertising to digital and online marketing because of better returns on investment and ability to target audiences, comparing traditional to interactive ads may not be a relevant comparison for future studies.

4.2 Limitations of evidence

Studies were quite heterogenous with respect to study design, populations evaluated, types of ads used, and measures reported; this limited our ability to conduct a robust synthesis of outcomes. Many studies were conducted among university students; whether findings from such studies would generalize to broader populations is not known. The measures used by some studies to evaluate product or service information recall or knowledge did not appear to be validated. The era over which studies were conducted was broad; some of the interactivity features or platforms used in included studies are likely obsolete or have been replaced by more sophisticated approaches to interactive advertising.

4.3 Limitations of this review

We limited this scoping review to studies published in English from very highly developed countries to increase applicability of findings to policy makers concerned with regulation of interactive advertising in such countries. Study indexing in bibliographic databases was variable and inconsistent; thus, it is possible we missed some relevant studies. Our RQs were focused on outcomes related to consumer engagement with interactive ads, and information recall and comprehension, as it related to product information or risk disclosures. We did not consider consumer attitudes or purchase behavior. We limited measures of engagement to studies conducted in naturalistic or real-world contexts because experimental studies typically manipulated ad exposure or instructed participants what to view and may have put limits on duration of exposure that would not reflect engagement outside of a controlled environment. We did not assess the risk of bias of included studies consistent with a scoping review approach.

4.4 Research gaps

Although the research on interactive advertising is extensive in terms of the volume of available publications, as judged by the size of our initial search yield, the amount of research specifically focused on the influence of interactive advertising on product information recall and specifically risk perception is sparse. Several studies that we screened but excluded as not eligible for this scoping review focused on evaluating tone, content, graphics, placement, or variable deployment of an interactive ad and impact on consumer attitudes about the product or brand or subsequent purchase intention or behavior (see S3 Appendix for a list of excluded studies). Whether such outcomes correlate to an accurate understanding of product features or services and risk disclosures is not known but could be relevant when considering interactive advertising for regulated products, such as prescription drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and financial products or services. Regardless, it is clear that available research on interactive advertising does not provide much of the evidence most useful to regulatory science focused on whether regulated advertising encourages informed decision making about products.

We need rigorously designed studies of consumer experiences with interactive advertising that use objective and validated measures to assess recall and understanding of product or service information and risk disclosures. We note a disjuncture between our selected studies and recent work on social media activities. A type of study we commonly encountered during screening but excluded as not eligible were studies evaluating the impact of influencer marketing through social media. Though not a focus of this scoping review, we noted many of these studies in the latter part of the time period we searched, suggesting an increasing use of this type of digital, interactive advertising for the future and a possible area for future inquiry.

5. Conclusion

This scoping systematic review summarized the research related to consumer engagement with interactive advertisements and impact on recall and understanding of product claims. The evidence shows that consumers do engage with interactive advertisements, but the evidence is mixed as to whether features of interactive advertising increase consumer engagement, recall, awareness, or comprehension of product claims and risk disclosures. Only a few studies compared traditional advertisements with interactive advertisements on these outcomes and these results also were mixed. Some of the limitations of existing interactive advertising literature as a source for informing regulatory science appears to reflect inconsistent labeling of concepts as well as adherence to industry metrics rather than regulatory science needs.

Supporting information

S1 checklist. prisma checklist..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263339.s001

S1 Appendix. Detailed search strategy.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263339.s002

S2 Appendix. Study selection criteria.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263339.s003

S3 Appendix. Excluded studies.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263339.s004

S4 Appendix. Results tables.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263339.s005

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge Sharon Barrell and Loraine Monroe for editing and document preparation.

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A Literature Review on Digital Marketing: The Evolution of a Revolution

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Digital transformation and marketing: a systematic and thematic literature review

Marco cioppi.

1 Department of Communication Sciences, Humanities and International Studies, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Via Saffi 15, 61029 Urbino, Italy

Ilaria Curina

Barbara francioni, elisabetta savelli.

2 Department of Economics, Society, Politics, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Via Saffi, 42, 61029 Urbino, Italy

This article provides a systematic review of the extensive and fragmented literature focused on Digital Transformation (DT) and marketing by identifying the main themes and perspectives (i.e., employees, customers, and business processes) studied by previous research. By mapping the DT literature in the area of marketing, 117 articles, published between 2014 and 2020, have been identified. Through the adoption of a content analysis process, a multi-dimensional framework synthesizing the DT and marketing binomial has been provided. Results identify two thematical patterns: the macro-themes, related to the main digital technologies adopted within the marketing function, and the micro-themes, related to the effect/impact of these technologies on marketing processes and activities. Concerning the micro-themes, findings show how they have mainly studied from the customer and business processes’ perspectives, thus identifying an interesting research gap related to the analysis of the DT-marketing phenomenon from the employees’ standpoint. Based on these results, the paper derives a research agenda by also providing theoretical and managerial implications. Theoretically, it is the first systematic and thematic review focused on DT and marketing. In particular, it analyses this binomial from a broad and comprehensive perspective, thus offering a synergistic framework of the existing literature, which allows an inclusive vision and understanding about the phenomenon. At the managerial level, the paper could help organizations to enhance their awareness about marketing areas and processes that could better benefit from digitalization, thus driving the overall transition of firms towards DT.

Introduction and background

Over the last decades, digital transformation (DT) has received growing attention in the business literature since it represents a prominent feature for organizations to be leaders of change and competitive in their domain (Kraus et al., 2022 ). At once, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the DT phenomenon has experienced an abrupt acceleration (Priyono et al., 2020 ), as firms and organizations are forced to redesign their strategies and operating models through a massive adoption of technologies in order to respond to the crisis-caused changes (Hai et al., 2021 ; Hanelt et al., 2021 ). Therefore, the necessity of analysing the DT topic has become ever more crucial in the last few years.

Conceptually, DT refers to all changes that digital technologies can bring in a firm’s business model, concerning products, processes, and organizational structures (Hess et al., 2016 ). Starting from this definition, it appears clear the pervasiveness of this phenomenon, which represents a real transition toward a new reality made of risks and challenges (Horvat and Szabo, 2019 ; Kraus et al., 2022 ; Vial, 2019 ). DT, indeed, can change every aspect of business, especially the marketing one (Caliskan et al., 2020 ).

Notably, the connection between DT and marketing has become ever more decisive in the last two years. The critical changes related to the COVID-19 crisis have particularly altered the firm and consumer relations, forcing companies to modify their marketing strategies through the massive exploitation of the digital technologies. In particular, marketing currently represents one of the main functions requiring to be adapted to the DT in order to protect firms’ competitiveness (Caliskan et al., 2020 ). By following this research stream, some authors have tried to synthetize the main impacts of DT on marketing practices (Shkurupskaya and Litovchenko, 2016 ; Sunday and Vera, 2018 ), including (i) The increasing spread of information and communication technology (ICT) in the marketing communication channels; (ii) The opportunity to adopt real-time communication with customers; (iii) The development of new relationships between producers and consumers; (iv) The increasing effectiveness of the marketing activities through the monitoring of real-time data. Meanwhile, other authors have specifically focused their attention on the main digital technologies able to offer significant benefits to the marketing function (Ardito et al., 2019 ; Cluley et al., 2019 ; Giannakis et al., 2019 ; Ungerman et al., 2018 ) by also categorizing them on the basis of the marketing mix (Caliskan et al., 2020 ).

Despite the DT-marketing topic has received growing attention, to date, no systematic review exists concerning the analysis of the DT phenomenon with specific application to the marketing processes and activities. Notably, several studies have tried to review the DT literature from very restricted research areas (Hanelt et al., 2021 ) different with respect to the broader one of marketing, such as B2B relationships (Hofacker et al., 2020 ), business model innovation (Favoretto et al., 2022 ; Li, 2020 ), accounting (Knudsen, 2020 ), multinational enterprises (George and Schillebeeckx, 2022 ), leadership (Carvalho et al., 2022 ; Henderikx and Stoffers, 2022 ), quality management (Dias et al., 2021 ; Thekkoote, 2022 ), production applications (D’Almeida et al., 2022 ), business management adaptability (Zhang et al., 2021 ), stakeholder management (Prebanić and Vukomanović, 2021 ), and sustainability (Gomez-Trujillo and Gonzalez-Perez, 2021 ). Faced with this context, some authors have tried to analyse and systematize the previous DT literature within broader research areas such as the business and management (Kraus et al., 2022 ) and the organizational change (Hanelt et al., 2021 ). However, despite these contributions, until now, no study has focused on reviewing the literature dedicated to the binomial DT-marketing.

Starting from these assumptions, the present study aims to provide a comprehensive review of the extant literature focused on DT in the marketing area by identifying the main themes and perspectives of analysis. More in detail, the paper addresses the following research questions: (i) What themes have been studied by previous research on DT in the field of marketing? (ii) What are the main perspectives adopted by the research on DT in the field of marketing?

To answer these research questions, the study has been organized in two phases: while in the first one the DT literature has been mapped by focusing on all studies addressing the digital transformation and marketing topics during the period 2014–2020, in the second phase a synergistic framework with the main macro and micro themes characterizing DT in the marketing area (concerning the digital technologies use and effects, respectively), along with the related analysed perspectives, has been provided.

By doing so, this study informs the academicians about the recent evolution of DT literature on marketing-related topics. Additionally, by proposing a synergistic framework of results, the paper provides a solid support for discussing and delineating future research directions. Finally, the main results of this review could help organizations to increase their awareness about marketing areas and processes that could better benefit from digitalization, thus driving the overall transition of firms towards DT.

The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. Section  2 presents the methodology and Sect.  3 outlines the descriptive and thematic results of the study. Section  4 provides theoretical and managerial implications and proposes future research directions based on the main gaps in existing literature. Finally, Sect.  5 concludes the study by also discussing the main limitations.

Methodology

This study adopts the systematic review method (Tranfield et al., 2003 ) to detect, classify, and interpret “all the available research relevant to a particular research question, or topic area or phenomenon of interest” (Kitchenham, 2004 ; p. 1). Structurally, the review process has been divided into three phases: (i) Data collection; (ii) Paper selection; (iii) Content analysis.

The identification of specific keywords and terms represents the first systematic review step (Tranfield et al., 2003 ). In our research, the following string has been adopted: [“Digital transformation” AND “marketing”], with the final aim of identifying all the contributions simultaneously focused on these two topics, regardless of the subject area (e.g., business, management, etc.) and research approach (e.g., qualitative vs . quantitative). The Scopus database has been employed as it represents the broader abstract and citation database of peer-review literature, and it also contains most of the publications from other databases (Guerrero et al., 2015 ).

All the proposed document typologies have been included in the analysis (i.e., articles, conference papers, conference reviews, literature reviews) by applying the above string on their title, abstract, and keywords (Table ​ (Table1). 1 ). As for the time frame, contributions published between 2014 and 2020 have been considered following the study of Vaska and Colleagues ( 2021 ), which reveals a growth in interest toward DT field, particularly from 2014.

Literature review’s selection criteria

A total number of 134 publications have been identified and further selected by considering only those studies effectively focused on the investigated topics. At the end of this process, 117 documents have been retained and subjected to content analysis to identify the main DT themes and perspectives in the marketing field (Fig.  1 ).

Main steps of the literature analysis

Notably, the content analysis allows the “systematic and theory-guided reduction of a large amount of text data from any type of communication down to its essence by classifying the material into unifying categories” (Hanelt et al., 2021 ; p. 1163). It is distinguished from other qualitative procedures, such as the thematic one, since it permits to build category systems in line with the research questions, thus providing both qualitative and quantitative insights (Mikelsone et al., 2019 ).

Results and discussion

In the following sub-paragraphs, the descriptive and thematic results of the literature review will be presented.

Descriptive results

Concerning the yearly research trend (Fig.  2 ), a growing interest in the digital transformation-marketing topic emerged during the time-period under review. Particularly, we went from only one contribution published in 2014 to three in 2017; starting from 2018, the attention increased with 13 published articles, while the most significant peaks have been reached between 2019 and 2020, characterized by the higher production of contributions (45 in 2019 and 50 in 2020).

Year distribution of contributions

Table ​ Table2 2 ranks the sources with the highest number of published contributions focused on the investigated topic. Ninety-three sources have published the 117 reviewed papers with the more relevant contribution from the Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing (3,4%), followed by Industrial Marketing Management (3,4%), and IOP Conferences series: Materials Science and Engineering (3,4%), Communications in Computer and Information Science (2,6%), and Journal of Physics (2,6%).

Source distribution per reviewed contributions

Additional sources with only one published contribution are shown in Table ​ Table3. 3 . Notably, fifty-seven sources are Journals, eighteen are conference proceedings, and two sources are book series. Concerning the Journals, those from a domain especially related to the business management, society, technology innovation, economics, and engineering have shown interest toward this specific issue. With respect to the conference proceedings, the main fields of study concern the smart trends, technology innovation management, computer science, and information systems. Finally, regarding the book series, they are specifically focused on the information and communication and tourism research streams.

Additional sources (with only one published contribution)

The source’s distribution is informant about the main future publication opportunities in the area of DT and marketing. Equally relevant is the result related to the contributions’ ranking per citation since it allows to figure out the widespread and dissemination of the analysed research stream. Table ​ Table4 4 shows the top-ten contributions in terms of citations. Notably, the more cited contributions are very recent (published between 2019 and 2020) and mainly focused on the following topics: technological innovations as enablers for firms’ digitalization strategies (Ballestar et al., 2019 ; Gil-Gomez et al., 2020 ; Hausberg et al., 2019 ; Peter et al., 2020 ; Sestino et al., 2020 ; Ulas, 2019 ; Yigitcanlar et al., 2020 ) and business sustainability (Sivarajah et al., 2020 ), and the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on consumers’ (Kim, 2020 ) and firms’ digital behaviours (Almeida et al., 2020 ).

Ranking of contributions per citations (Top-ten)

Finally, concerning the adopted methodologies, 93 (79,5%) contributions are based on qualitative methods, while the remaining 24 (20,5%) are quantitative in nature.

Thematic results

By employing the content analysis, it has been possible to extract the main DT themes and perspectives in the marketing fields. As for the DT themes, two main clusters have been identified:

• Macro-themes related to the use of digital technologies within the marketing function;
• Micro-themes related to the effects emerging from the use of digital technologies on marketing processes and activities.

Macro-themes related to the use of digital technologies

The identification of the most investigated digital technologies analysed in the marketing domain by the reviewed contributions represents the first result deriving from the content analysis. Appendix 1 displays the list of technologies along with their main conceptualizations. As shown in Table ​ Table5, 5 , the majority of contributions (67,1%) have focused their attention on the analysis of specific digital tools. In particular, the social media channels (social media marketing) represent the most examined technology (being investigated by 9,4% of the selected studies), followed by Big Data (8,7%), mobile marketing (i.e., mobile technology and smart apps) (8,1%), Internet of Things (6,7%), Artificial Intelligence (6,7%), and Industry 4.0 (6,7%). The remaining technologies (i.e., Machine learning; Online collaborative/support platforms/systems; Virtual/Augmented Reality; Websites/SEO; Cloud infrastructures; Chatbots; Drones/Smart robots; Security Protection systems; 3D print) have experienced a reduced interest by the extant literature (less than 6% of the identified contributions). Finally, a not negligible percentage of studies (32,9%) has analysed the topic of digitalization without investigating specific technologies. Rather, they broadly referred to the “digitalization phenomenon” as an overall macro-theme investing the marketing area.

Macro-themes (Analysed digital technologies within the marketing function)

The sum of the identified macro-themes ( n  = 149) exceeds the number of papers analysed during the review process ( n  = 117) since some papers have simultaneously examined more than one macro-theme.

Micro-themes related to the effects emerging from the use of digital technologies

The second result achieved by the content analysis concerns the main effects (i.e., micro-themes) deriving from the adoption and exploitation of the already identified digital technologies (Par. 3.2.1 ) on the marketing function. The most examined effects fall within the following areas: customer relationship management, customer connectivity, and customer centricity (12,3%), human resources (10,3%), digital metrics (8,8%), customer experience/journey (8,3%), business process efficiency (8,3%), MarTech (7,8%), market knowledge (7,4%), communication policy (5,9%), and customer behaviour (5,4%). The remaining effects (i.e., product policy, sales processes; production; buying/consumption processes; value co-creation; supply chain; branding; customer service; etc.) received less attention, being investigated by less than 5% of the identified contributions (Table ​ (Table6 6 ).

Micro-themes (Main effects deriving from the adoption and exploitation of the digital technologies)

The sum of the identified micro-themes ( n  = 204) exceeds the number of papers analysed during the review process ( n  = 117) since some papers have simultaneously examined more than one micro-theme.

The content analysis allowed as to go deep into the study of each micro-theme by revealing both a detailed list of specific sub-themes (Table ​ (Table7) 7 ) and the main perspectives of analysis adopted in the reviewed manuscripts (Table ​ (Table8 8 ).

Micro-themes and sub-themes

Micro-themes grouped by the analysed perspective

Specifically, three main perspectives emerged from our study, namely employees, customers, and business. While the employee perspective focuses on the human resources and their coexistence with new technologies, the customer one is mainly related to the digital opportunities offered on the consumer side, especially concerning the overall shopping journey. Finally, the process-focused perspective is primarily concerned with the influence of digital technologies on the different business practices and procedures.

Macro-themes, micro-themes, and analysed perspectives: a combined overview

In this section, the macro-themes, micro-themes, and analysed perspectives will be combined with the final aim of building a comprehensive overview (Table ​ (Table9 9 ).

By focusing on the first macro-theme (i.e., social media channels), no studies have specifically examined it from the employee perspective, thus identifying an interesting research gap. Conversely, research widely underlined the key-role of these tools from the business processes and customer perspectives. Concerning the first one, different contributions highlighted how social media support a multitude of business processes (e.g., segmentation, brand positioning, promotion, advertising, buying, after-sales), thus improving firms and marketing performance (Al-Azani and El-Alfy, 2020 ; Kazaishvili and Khmiadashvili, 2020 ; Lestari et al., 2019 ; Melović et al., 2020 ; Rebelli, 2019 ; Safiullin et al., 2020 ; Sivarajah et al., 2020 ; Ulas, 2019 ; Van Osch et al., 2019 ). At once, an equally relevant number of studies has also examined the social media impact from the customers’ viewpoint (Hahn, 2019 ; Kumar-Singh and Thirumoorthi, 2019 ; Rebelli, 2019 ; Yusmarni et al., 2020 ) by identifying the main advantages for them, such as their involvement and engagement in the value creation process and the access to personalized assistance services (Kazaishvili and Khmiadashvili, 2020 ; Sivarajah et al., 2020 ).

Big Data represent the second macro-theme extracted from the thematic literature review. These have been especially analysed from the business processes perspective, recognizing them as one of the most significant challenges and innovations of recent years within the DT framework. Almaslamani et al. ( 2020 ), for instance, explained how the Big Data adoption can lead firms to use intelligent market basket analysis, thus enhancing the relationship with customers. Similarly, the study of Miklosik and Evans ( 2020 ) analysed the impact of Big Data on the digital transformation of the marketing industry by examining the main challenges it faces from a data and information management viewpoint. At once, Sestino et al. ( 2020 ) provided interesting implications for marketers by underlining how the DT, enabled by Big Data, can positively influence many facets of business (e.g., collection of large-scale data allowing to identify emerging trends on consumer behaviour; creation of promotion campaigns with real-time data; creation of stronger bonds with consumers). By specifically focusing on the B2B market, the study of Sivarajah et al. ( 2020 ) demonstrated the Big Data capability to allow B2B firms to become profitable and remain sustainable through strategic operations and marketing-related business activities. Overall, the research offers interesting implications for all the stakeholders interested in understanding and exploiting the use of Big Data with the final aim of achieving business sustainability.

As for mobile marketing (mobile technology and smart apps), research has mainly examined it by focusing on the customer perspective. Indeed, mobile devices have deeply influenced customers’ behaviours and preferences toward online shopping (Sundaram et al., 2020 ) by also transforming them into an integral part of the value creation process. Meanwhile, mobile technology and smart apps have also been studied from the business processes viewpoint since they have become an excellent opportunity to analyse consumers in more meaningful manners, thus supporting the development of appropriate marketing strategies (Sundaram et al., 2020 ). Additionally, mobility, along with other digital technologies, is creating relevant opportunities for firms to transform themselves by impacting on their purchasing processes (Ulas, 2019 ) as well as on their distribution activities, since mobile apps represent omni-channel retail platforms allowing consumers to obtain products from different channels, such as e-commerce, modern markets, and traditional ones. In this way, the shopping experience streamlines and integrates itself across channels (Cahyadi, 2020 ). Conversely, even if the employee perspective has been less investigated, it represents an interesting field of study since the mobile technology is impacting, on a massive scale, the workplace (Attaran and Attaran, 2020 ). More in detail, it can raise employee engagement; increase productivity through the scheduling/automation of daily activities; enable real-time communications through different tools, such as group chats or one-to-one messaging. Moreover, the 5G advent could revolutionize the way employees work “in much the same way the Internet did in the 1980s” (Attaran and Attaran, 2020 ; p. 66). Notably, it can allow employees to (i) Fast download and upload files and documents; (ii) Quicker move data; (iii) Carry the office anywhere; (iv) Exploit resources such as real-time video interaction and smart conference/meetings rooms, thus maximizing the workplace productivity and efficiency, reducing travel time, and saving operational costs for remote employees; (v) Increase office collaboration; (vi) Synchronize and access to large amounts of data storage.

Another macro-theme widely analysed by the literature focused on the DT and marketing is Internet of Things, which represents one of the main megatrends related to the technological revolution (Hamidi et al., 2020 ). Extant research (e.g., Almeida et al., 2020 ; Chehri and Jeon, 2019 ) has particularly examined the main improvements provided by this technology in terms of business processes. Notably, Sestino et al. ( 2020 ) underlined how IoT can contribute to: (i) Design products/services based on consumers’ consumption experiences; (ii) Collect consumption data useful, for marketing managers, to identify new gaps, trends, or variables in understanding consumer behaviour; (iii) Identify consumers’ attitudes and choices on a large scale. At once, different studies (e.g., Almeida et al., 2020 ; Sestino et al., 2020 ) have also investigated the impact of IoT from the customer perspective by focusing on their ability to provide new types of services and high-quality products; as well as to improve the customer journey through more targeted promotions, announcements, and email marketing. Finally, even if the employee perspective represents the least investigated one, some authors (e.g., Almeida et al., 2020 ; Peter et al., 2020 ) identified several IoT advantages from this viewpoint, including the possibility of adopting mobile, flexible, team-oriented, and non-routine working methods, which allow the creation of digital workplaces; activating collaborative practices between all the staff’s levels; and communicating and disseminating corporate strategies, thus creating innovative workplaces.

Concerning the Artificial Intelligence (AI), it has been analysed from all the perspectives, especially the customer and business processes ones. Different studies investigated the advantages of the AI-based digital humans for customers, including the possibility to obtain better knowledge of their preferences and needs (Kumar-Singh and Thirumoorthi, 2019 ), to build an innovative and real-time relationship with the firms (Cherviakova and Cherviakova, 2018 ), to experience a completely new and interactive journey, and to receive personalized offers (Ianenko et al., 2019 ). From the processes perspective, AI significantly influences marketing processes and activities (Almeida et al., 2020 ; Ianenko et al., 2019 ; Sargut, 2019 ) through the analysis of the customers’ behaviours and the realization of more specific targeted profiles (Ianenko et al., 2019 ). AI also influences the distribution activities and, in particular, the automation of the ordering process of products and services (Cherviakova and Cherviakova, 2018 ). Moreover, by considering unexpected events, AI allows to recalculate new routes and to maintain constant contacts with clients and the logistics service providers. Literature (Cherviakova and Cherviakova, 2018 ) underlined the AI role in allowing the automatic placement of advertisements across channels, while Kumar-Singh and Thirumoorthi ( 2019 ) analysed the AI relevance also with respect to the buying/consumption process. Finally, it has been recognized the importance of AI with respect to both sales (Almeida et al., 2020 ) and after-sales processes, as it permits to better examine the customers’ opinions about products/services, and to identify their satisfaction level as well as the possible enhancements that could be applied to the firm’s offering. Concerning the employee perspective, AI–by representing a disruptive technology–has significantly influenced the labour relations model and, in particular, the knowledge sharing among employees (Almeida et al., 2020 ; Subramani, 2019 ; Ulas, 2019 ). Therefore, it becomes fundamental to enhance the employee training toward this digital tool, which is becoming more and more integrated into the workplace (Yigitcanlar et al., 2020 ).

By representing a multifaceted term, the Industry 4.0 has emerged as an additional macro-theme related to the DT-marketing binomial. Notably, research (e.g., Chehri and Jeong, 2019 , Del Giorgio and Mon, 2019 ; Hamidi et al., 2020 ) has mainly investigated this topic from the customer and business processes perspectives, especially by focusing on the main principles behind it, namely 5c (i.e., Cooperation, Conversation, Co-creation, Cognitivity, Connectivity). This technology has created the basis of the digital ecosystem, thus offering the key ability, for firms and customers, to exchange data in real-time (Nosalska and Mazurek, 2019 ). By specifically focusing on the business processes perspective, an interesting point of view has been provided by Naglič et al. ( 2020 ), who analysed the Industry 4.0 macro-theme in combination with the export market orientation/export performance micro-theme. The authors offered a framework on how companies can enhance their export performance through the knowledge related to the Industry 4.0. Overall, their study detected how firms that invest in digital technologies, by effectively embracing DT, are better prepared to compete internationally, thus achieving better export performance.

Also the Machine Learning (ML) macro-theme has been mainly analysed from the business processes perspective. In particular, some studies have tried to identify the main ML implications on DT in marketing (Miklosik and Evans, 2020 ) by investigating the advantages this technology can bring from this perspective (Kazaishvili and Khmiadashvili, 2020 ; Miklosik and Evans, 2020 ; Polyakov and Gordeeva, 2020 ; Sargut, 2019 ). Literature focused its attention on the social media analysis (e.g., sentiment analysis on social media); packaging; product and purchasing decision-making; and advertising (e.g., interactive ad placement and targeting ads). Given that ML is a subset of AI, the literature focused on ML usually underlined, from the employee and customer perspectives, advantages very similar to the AI-related ones. More in detail, from the customers’ perspective, ML can offer personalized shopping experiences thanks to its ability to deeply know their preferences and interests. Conversely, from the employees’ viewpoint, literature mainly highlighted the key impact of ML on knowledge building and sharing (Subramani, 2019 ).

Concerning the online collaborative/support platforms/systems macro-theme, it emerges how it has been equally analysed from the employee and business processes perspectives. From the employee perspective, Azeredo et al. ( 2020 ) provided a proposal for the realization of an online business consulting plan through the adoption of an online collaborative platform called LexDoBusiness. More in detail, the research aimed to analyse the acceptability of this platform, which offers several benefits, especially for what concerns the levels of cohesion and cooperation between the actors involved in the business plan. In their study, Bhatnagar and Grosse ( 2019 ) underlined the relevance of a digitalized agile workplace since it allows to make employees more productive and satisfied. Similarly, Minculete and Minculete ( 2019 ) emphasized the key role of education and training actions aimed at providing staff members with the required skills for the new technologies and systems adoption. By specifically focusing on the business processes perspective, Bruskin et al. ( 2017 ) examined the development of support systems for decision-making in terms of marketing by specifically focusing on the analysis of the business effects from the adoption of similar systems.

As regards the virtual and augmented reality, literature has mainly examined it from the customer and business processes perspectives. For what concerns the first viewpoint, the majority of studies have investigated the consumers’ propensity to interact with this tool (Voronkova, 2018 ). Additional researches have focused their attention on the new opportunities deriving from adopting virtual and augmented reality for personalized online shopping experiences (Kim, 2020 ). From the business processes perspective, the virtual/augmented reality has been particularly examined with respect to the communication and advertising procedures. Notably, extant research underlined how firms can adopt the virtual reality technology to promote products and services in innovative and visual ways (Voronkova, 2018 ).

For what concerns the last identified macro-themes (i.e., websites/SEO; cloud infrastructure; chatbots; drones/smart robots; security protection systems; 3D print), results have already revealed a minor attention dedicated to them by the extant research (Table ​ (Table5). 5 ). By focusing on the websites/SEO topic, the customer and business processes perspectives represent the most investigated viewpoints. Existing studies have particularly analysed the websites topic with respect to the customer relationship management/customer connectivity/centricity (Ballestar et al., 2019 ) and customer experience/journey (García et al., 2019 ) micro-themes. With regard to the business processes perspective, the reviewed contributions have especially deepened the micro-themes of branding, communication policy, and business process efficiency. Specifically, Natorina ( 2020 ) underlined the need to implement effective marketing strategies within the DT scenario by specifically focusing on the search engine optimization (SEO). Overall, the author highlighted how the SEO represents an integral component of a successful marketing strategy since it increases the organic traffic and conversion by also enhancing the firms’ attractiveness in the sight of the Internet users.

Concerning the cloud infrastructure, it has been especially analysed from the customer perspective (Ulas, 2019 ) by investigating its impact on consumers’ preferences and behaviours. At the same time, the cloud infrastructure has also increased the human resources capabilities (Ulas, 2019 ) and improved the business processes. Notably, Kumar-Singh and Thirumoorthi ( 2019 ) shown that cloud-based digital infrastructures allow firms to increase agility, maximize resources, and improve services by also reducing operational costs. The authors also underlined the importance to analyse the impact of this technology from the demand side in order to examine how it can impact on customer preferences and behaviours.

As for the chatbots, these have been analysed from the business processes perspective and, to a lesser extent, from the employee one. Hence, an interesting research gap emerges with respect to the customer viewpoint. In particular, concerning the business processes perspective, Damnjanovic ( 2019 ) proposed a case study analysing the international positioning and go-to-market strategy of a chatbot solution, namely Weaver, which can be defined as an AI-based firm platform allowing to facilitate and simplify the sales processes. In the same year, the study of Sargut ( 2019 ) offered an insight related to the SMEs awareness, readiness, and capability in facing the DT challenge. Almost all the interviewed SMEs have confirmed to be interested in the DT subject and ready to implement chatbots and/or voice-operated machines in their business activities and processes.

Even if results underlined scarce attention of the recent literature on the robotics macro-theme (with the few identified contributions focused on the employee and business processes perspective), with the advent of the COVID-19 and the consequent reduction of human contacts, this topic will probably obtain, in the future, greater emphasis. Notably, robots will be increasingly adopted not only in order to substitute human resources but also to interact with customers. Indeed, robots “are expected to be progressively more autonomous, flexible, and cooperative” (Almeida et al., 2020 , p. 102).

As for the last identified macro-themes (i.e., security protection systems and 3D print), while Li et al. ( 2020 ) emphasized the need to establish a new generation of security protection systems to increase the business processes efficiency, Ulas ( 2019 ) especially highlighted the key relevance of 3D printers in the process of new products development and design.

By considering the residual (but not irrelevant number of) contributions referring to the digitalization phenomenon as a broader macro-theme of analysis (i.e., digitalization phenomenon), it emerged an overall preference towards the adoption of a business processes and customer perspective. With regard to the former, two of the most investigated effects are the so-called “digital metrics” and “business process efficacy”. Indeed, the digitalization phenomenon has profoundly affected the analysis of the firms’ performance. Hence, the adoption of digital tools allows firms to precisely monitor and measure their social ROI (Return on Investment) in a totally new and disruptive way compared to the past. In particular, by measuring online reactions (e.g., customers’ views, likes, comments, shares), the digital metrics can contribute significantly to evaluating an ad campaign in real-time, thus permitting to modify it accordingly (e.g., Bughin et al., 2019 ). Moreover, a number of contributions focused on the business processes perspective has specifically analysed the role played by the digital tools in increasing the quality of the firms’ processes, thus elevating their levels of operational and organizational excellence (e.g., Kuimov et al., 2019 ). On the other hand, from the customer perspective, literature has mainly investigated the impact of the digitalization phenomenon on the customer journey (e.g., Taylor et al., 2020 ) and on the relationship management between firms and customers (e.g., Barann, 2018 ).

After the content analysis process has been concluded, Appendix 2 has been created, displaying the classification of the articles based on the following categorizations: (i) Author/s; (ii) Title; (iii) Source; (iv) Year of publication; (v) Analysed macro-theme; (vi) Analysed micro-theme with (vii) The respective analysis perspective (i.e., EP, CP, BPP).

Implications and future research agenda

General discussion.

Both the descriptive and thematic results of this study provide interesting insights into the analysis of the DT-marketing topic, while crafting new propositions for future research agenda.

Descriptive data highlight the growing focus of the literature on the digital transformation-marketing topic over the last few years, with the majority of contributions published between 2019 and 2020. Notably, only nine publications have been found in the four-year period 2014–2017, while thirteen publications were reviewed in 2018, forty-five in 2019, and fifty in 2020. The publication sources are highly fragmented, given that ninety-three sources have published the 117 reviewed papers. The more cited contributions—besides being published between 2019 and 2020—have especially focused on the impact of the digitalization phenomenon on (i) Customer relationship management (Ballestar et al., 2019 ; Gil-Gomez et al., 2020 ; Hausberg et al., 2019 ; Peter et al., 2020 ; Sivarajah et al., 2020 ), (ii) Its coexistence with the human resources (Almeida et al., 2020 ; Gil-Gomez et al., 2020 ; Ulas, 2019 ; Yigitcanlar et al., 2020 ), and (iii) The improvement of the business processes’ performance (Sestino et al., 2020 ) by specifically focusing on market knowledge (Hausberg et al., 2019 ), communication (Ballestar et al., 2019 ), product development (Ulas, 2019 ), and sales activities (Almeida et al., 2020 ). Moreover, the majority of contributions here analysed has employed qualitative methods. Overall, these data, while suggesting an increasing interest by the scientific community towards the DT-marketing phenomenon, depict the absence of sources systematically and continuously dealing with this field of study, a dominant focus on certain issues, and the need to improve the adoption of quantitative methods in future research, both to validate previous research findings and to make them more generalizable.

Concerning the research questions guiding this study and, in particular the analysed themes (RQ1), these can be grouped on a twofold level concerning (i) The study of digital technologies employed in the field of marketing ( macro-themes) , and (ii) The impact of such technologies on specific marketing activities ( micro-themes ). Overall, the literature analysis suggests an increasing pervasiveness of digital technologies in the marketing field. The use of such technologies, in fact, affects the consumer behaviour, as well as the way marketers work and marketing activities are managed and organized. In particular, it is worthy to note that DT involves the most operational marketing activities (e.g., Caliskan et al., 2020 ), such as sales (e.g., Almeida et al., 2020 ) and communication policies (e.g., Alassani and Göretz, 2019 ; Dasser, 2019 ), allowing a general increase in these processes’ quality. Meanwhile, DT also affects the analytic and strategic areas of marketing, improving the opportunities to reach new groups of consumers through the systematic use of digital technologies (such as Big Data) that allow a deeper segmentation of the market (e.g., Almaslamani et al., 2020 ). It supports the development of new branding strategies and the increasing visibility of brands, thanks to the use of online and social channels (e.g., Kazaishvili and Khmiadashvili, 2020 ; Melović et al., 2020 ). Moreover, DT impacts on companies’ innovativeness, helping the implementation of more effective and efficient innovative processes (Calle et al., 2020 ), and changes the overall relationships between firms and consumers by encouraging a customer-centric organizational culture (Cherviakova and Cherviakova, 2018 , Graf et al., 2019 ) and the customer participation in the value creation process (Hughes and Vafeas, 2019 ). According to Dasser ( 2019 ), DT also implies a deeper change of marketing by elevating its strategic role as a catalytic accelerator in the digital business transformation journey.

These studies are driven by different perspectives of analysis (RQ2). The majority of research considered in this review employed a business process perspective by examining how digital technologies impact on specific marketing processes, such as sales and communication management. Nevertheless, by focusing on the main investigated topics, findings reveal that the existing research has been principally guided by a customer perspective, i.e. the way in which digital technologies are transforming customers’ behaviour, experience, and relationship with companies, followed by the business processes perspective concerning the investigation of potential improvements occurring in the area of marketing analysis and control. The employees’ perspective emerges as the less relevant among the others, despite it includes a critical part of the literature focused on the relationship between DT and human resources management. More in detail, as it emerged from our dataset, the employees’ perspective mainly characterized the first publications, investigating how digital technologies are enhancing (and requiring) the development of new marketing and business skills dealing with DT (Kwon and Park, 2017 ; Van Belleghem, 2015 ). Over the time, the scientific attention has been moved increasingly towards the customer and business processes’ perspectives. Most of the contributions published in 2020, indeed, dealt with the analysis of the DT phenomenon from the consumer viewpoint, specifically investigating the management of the customer-firm relationship (e.g., Gil-Gomez et al., 2020 ; Sivarajah et al., 2020 ), and from the business processes’ viewpoint, especially analysing the key relevance of the digital tools in measuring the firms’ performance in the social sphere (e.g., Al-Azani and El-Alfy, 2020 ; Lin et al., 2020 ). Probably, this growing interest of the research derives from the advent and unleashing, during 2020, of the COVID-19 health crisis that has led companies to almost completely digitize the relationship with customers due to the limitations imposed by the anti-COVID-19 decrees.

All these findings provide several contributions both theoretically and practically.

Theoretical implications and research gaps

From a theoretical standpoint, this is the first study that offers a systematic and thematic review of the existing literature on DT and Marketing, while previous reviews, in the marketing field, have been very narrow in perspective. Hofacker et al. ( 2020 ), for example, examined the relevant literature on digital marketing and B2B relationships, while Miklosik and Evans ( 2020 ) focused on the impact of big data and machine learning on marketing activities. Our review, instead, addresses the DT-Marketing binomial from a wider and more comprehensive perspective, including all prior research dealing with DT in the marketing area. By doing so, this study outruns the scope of prior reviews that have been often limited to certain domains, and provides a comprehensive framework that offers a synergistic view of the existing literature, which allows a more inclusive vision and understanding about the phenomenon.

By doing so, this review also permits to highlight some relevant research gaps on which future studies might focus on.

From the combined overview between macro- and micro-themes, the main research gaps relate to the necessity of deepening the analysis of the impact of specific macro-themes from the employee (i.e., social media channels, big data, mobile marketing, Artificial Intelligence, Industry 4.0, Cloud infrastructure, Virtual/augmented reality, and websites), customer (i.e., Social media channels, Big Data, Industry 4.0; Internet of Things; Machine Learning; Websites; Chatbots), and business processes perspective (i.e., Mobile technology; Artificial Intelligence; Virtual/Augmented reality; Cloud infrastructure; Drones/Smart robots).

Besides that, the variety of analysed studies, while manifesting the pervasive use of digital technologies in the marketing field, reveals that the extant literature is quite fragmented and even sparse with regard to specific micro-themes. Some topics, like customer service, smart factories, consumer behaviour, have been investigated by few contributions, thus highlighting potential opportunities for further studies. In this respect, our review can be viewed as a solid basis for additional discussion and research within each perspective emerged from the analysis (see Fig.  3 ).

Areas of future research on DT and Marketing

More in detail, the findings reveal that the employees’ perspective is worthy of further attention, as it is the less investigated one. Although several contributions (n. 21) focused on DT and human resources by highlighting the need for enhanced skills in using technology (e.g., Dethine et al., 2020 ; Ulas, 2019 ), the development of new prominent job positions for the future (e.g. digital marketing manager; social media manager; big data/data analyst) (e.g., Di Gregorio et al., 2019 , Hafezieh and Pollock, 2018), and the critical role of training and educational actions enhancing the appropriate use of digital technologies in the marketing context (Yigitcanlar et al., 2020 ), other themes have been under-investigated. In particular, only two papers dealt with the subject of smart technologies by investigating how they can help cities to face the increasing urbanization (Visan and Ciurea, 2020 ), and their importance for establishing a predictive maintenance of production systems, which can increase the process quality (Chehri and Jeon, 2019 ). The application of smart technologies can also redefine the way people conduct business, bringing benefits in terms of productivity and employee well-being (Papagiannidis and Marikyan, 2020 ). Thus, there is scope for considering, in future research, how smart technologies are used to conduct marketing activities and how they are changing the way marketers work and organize their processes.

Under the customer perspective, several topics might deserve attention in future research. Most of the analysed contributions addressed the impact of DT on firms/customers relationships, highlighting the need for new forms of interaction and collaborations with customers due to changes in behaviour. Several scholars recognized the advantage of DT as it allows to establish innovative and real-time relationships with the market (e.g. Almaslamani et al., 2020 ), to engage customers in the value creation process (e.g. Saravanabhavan et al., 2020 ; Taylor et al., 2020 ), and to provide customers with more interactive and personalized experiences (e.g. Taylor et al., 2020 ; Venermo et al., 2020 ). However, our findings suggest that other topics, although relevant, are still at the begin of their investigation. Only three contributions focused on customer service (Lieberman, 2019 ; Lin et al., 2020 ; Safiullin et al., 2020 ), especially revealing the role of digital tools in the online customer service and the importance of electronic services for improving customer satisfaction (Lin et al., 2020 ). A recent study (Galvani and Bocconcelli, 2021 ) revealed that a new business model is emerging in the BtoB context characterized by an overall revolution towards the digital servitization strategy, which replaces the traditional product-centric paradigm. Hence, future research could investigate whether and how the digital servitization strategy is currently implemented in the BtoC context, which opportunities and benefits can offer—especially concerning the firm-customers’ relationship, and how marketing managers can act to face the imperative complexity linked to its adoption. Another theme receiving increasing—but still few—attention concerns the buying/consumption processes. Few scholars analysed the impact of digital tools on customers buying processes (Kim, 2020 ), the increasing use of e-commerce (Cahyadi, 2020 ), and structural changes occurring in consumption during COVID-19 pandemic (Kim, 2020 ). However, the identification of consumption patterns and trends has been always a central topic in the marketing literature, as proved by the wide number of literature reviews, even focused on specific areas such as electronic word of mouth (Huete-Alcocer, 2017 ), online consumption (Hwang and Jeong, 2016 ), or COVID-19 crisis (Cruz-Cárdenas et al., 2021 ). Therefore, continuing the research on DT and consumption/buying behaviour is desirable to properly adapt the marketing management with the aim of satisfying specific market needs and expectations, as well as realizing a stronger engagement of customers in the value creation process, which is getting more and more attention within the recent marketing and management literature (Fan and Luo, 2020 ). Besides, future studies on DT and consumption/buying behaviour might also employ modern research methods, such as neuromarketing. We found only one contribution based on the analysis of the use of advanced methods in the field of artificial neural networks (Polyakov and Gordeeva, 2020 ). However, neuromarketing could contribute to overcome several limitations associated with traditional data collection method (i.e. self-report data), while allowing to capture unconscious brain processes that relate to consumer decision-making (Sung et al., 2021 ).

Finally, an additional space for future research emerged from our review of publications is related to the business processes perspective. This area shows the greatest potential for exploration, given the richness of themes it includes. In this perspective, in fact, except for some activities related to marketing analysis and control, and operational policies—especially product and communication ones—the rest of the literature appears very fragmented and scarce. Notably, specific attention might be devoted to DT and export process management, as Naglič et al. ( 2020 ) found that firms which invest in DT are better prepared to compete internationally and achieve better export performance; branding strategies, as they have been recognized as critical for marketing competitiveness (Kazaishvili and Khmiadashvili, 2020 ), drivers/barriers and risks associated to DT implementation in the marketing areas; and sustainable/social opportunities and treats that digital technologies can bring with them, as they can differently affect the success of human-centric marketing programs in the digital environment (Agafonova et al., 2020 ). All these topics have been very little investigated by previous research, while deserving increasing attention given their relation with companies’ success and long-term competitiveness.

Practical implications

Regarding the practical contributions, our review offers a number of suggestions to marketing managers as it analyses the DT-Marketing binomial both internally (i.e. on the firm level) and externally (i.e. on the inter-firm level). This approach results from the recognition of different perspectives of analysis adopted by prior research, which combines contributions focused on the management of internal processes and marketing activities with studies investigating the DT phenomenon from a customer-based viewpoint. Consistent with our twofold approach of analysis, the practical implications deserving particular attention can be summarized into two main groups concerning (i) The changing role of marketing in the company resulting from the increasing use of digital technologies, and (ii) The changing relationships between firms (and marketing) and external stakeholders (especially consumers).

Literature suggests that DT could improve the strategic role of marketing within the firm, as it enhances the marketing capability to analyse the market scenario and to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the demand (Papagiannopoulos and Lopez, 2018 ), which, in turn, can support new products development that are better aligned with customers’ expectations (Kuimov et al., 2019 ). Overall, digital technologies can help companies to become data-driven subjects, where marketing covers a central position given its informative and intra-firm coordinating role. However, the full exploitation of such opportunities means change, at both cultural and structural levels. Our review, in particular, reveals that DT requires a cultural upgrading, to cope with DT and its effects on the business (e.g., Álvarez-Flores et al., 2018 ; Dethine et al., 2020 ), the enhancement of internal competences in the field of technology (Ulas, 2019 ), the development of new job positions (Di Gregorio et al., 2019 ), and the gradual adoption of new working habits and patterns (Minculete and Minculete, 2019 ). Of course, educational and training activities become prominent to support such changes, passing through the acquisition of new skills from the market labour, as well as through the enhancement and conversion of internal resources. Besides training programs, organized both internally and externally in collaboration with private and public institutions such as high schools and universities, companies could also provide ad hoc rewards to encourage the commitment and interest of marketing employees in digital innovation.

The second group of advices concerns the changing relationships between firms (and marketing) and external stakeholders (especially consumers). DT affects the customer behaviour and changes his ability to communicate with the company (e.g., Caliskan et al., 2020 ), to be engaged in the value creation process (e.g., Taylor et al., 2020 ), and to live personalized consumption experiences (e.g., Fokina and Barinov, 2019 ). All this implies a general re-thinking about the firm-customer relationship management. Consumers are becoming empowered subjects that no longer accept the role of passive receivers of marketing initiatives (Acar and Puntoni, 2016 ) and companies need to open to their customers, accepting their participation in the marketing decision-processes. Undoubtedly, the use of social-media platforms can be decisive to create engaging content and connect with customers, improving the interaction and the dialog with them, for example by responding to a specific comment or complaint (Acar and Puntoni, 2016 ). However, digital technologies can be also used to create more advanced tools that are able to strengthen the connection between brands and customers, such as crowdsourcing, co-creation, and/or brand communities. These platforms can be used successfully by firms to improve the dialog with customers and their involvement in several marketing processes, such as the selection of an advertising campaign and/or the creation of new product ideas.

Conclusions and limitations

This study provides a synergistic view of existing literature on the binomial DT-Marketing by detecting the main themes investigated and the relative approach of analysis characterizing prior research. It offers a comprehensive framework, which combines both internal and external perspectives to analyse the impact of DT on all the activities on which the traditional marketing management is based, dealing with the areas of market information and knowledge, marketing strategies, and operational policies. Moreover, it also considers how the binomial DT-Marketing has been investigated in the wider context of the firm, by taking into account the organizational, human, and structural changes associated to the adoption of digital tools in the marketing field. By doing so, our review synthetizes prior research on DT and marketing, provides suggestions for future research directions, and offers practical implications for marketing managers. Notwithstanding these contributions, the current study presents its limitations.

First, despite the adoption of a rigorous methodological approach in conducting the review, some pertinent studies are likely to have been omitted, as the research was based on a certain combination of keywords in the search string and, above all, it was focused on a single database, i.e. Scopus. While Scopus covers all top journals and scientific publications, containing most references from other databases (Guerrero et al., 2015 ), it could not necessarily capture all contributions due to retrieval conditions and data source limitations. Therefore, a future updating of the current review should consider other leading databases, such as ISI, Web of Science, and EBSCO, which are also appreciated for their comprehensiveness in the field of peer-review literature and management research (Schryen, 2015 ).

Second, the analysis was focused on recent literature published between 2014 and 2020. Although the literature on DT has gained in interests over the last years, especially from 2014 (Vaska et al., 2021 ), there may be articles and authors that do not come under our review. Moreover, the results are valid only for the specific time-period we considered in this study. Therefore, a future review (e.g., including the years before 2014 and the years after 2020) might extend the time framing as new research works could modify our findings, particularly in light of the constant development of digital technologies and marketing scenarios.

Finally, in our review, the qualitative analysis and descriptions are based on the research team interpretation of the selected references, which is subject to the limitations of human judgments. While it is impossible to eliminate human interpretation in scientific research, as it is critical to make the results more meaningful (Zhu et al., 2021 ), a future review could combine bibliometric analysis methods (e.g., citation, main path analysis) with subjective analysis, to reduce the influence of human interpretation and provide a more accurate description of DT-Marketing research. To this end, the use of appropriate software tools, such as VOSviewer, should provide notable improvements to the research quality, as it allows to create large bibliometric maps, which offer a clear and easy way to manage the visualization of data analysis (Shah et al., 2020 ).

Acknowledgements

This publication includes, among the authors, a researcher awarded with a fixed-term type A research contract on innovation topics as per art. 24, para. 3, of Italian Law no. 240 of 30 December 2010, co-financed by the European Union—NOP Research and Innovation 2014-2020 resources as per Italian MD no. 1062 of 10 August 2021.

See Table ​ 665)10 10 .

Macro-themes and main definitions

See Table ​ responsibilityBPP11 11 .

List of reviewed articles

Open access funding provided by Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo within the CRUI-CARE Agreement.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Contributor Information

Marco Cioppi, Email: [email protected] .

Ilaria Curina, Email: [email protected] .

Barbara Francioni, Email: [email protected] .

Elisabetta Savelli, Email: [email protected] .

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