Digitalization: The New Digital Consumer and the Change of Companies Value Chain

Abstract

The world has changed dramatically within the last 10 years; it has changed much more in the past decade than in the last 70 years all together. The Internethype in the years 2000/ 2001 has already been a sign for a fundamental change and the impact of new media on our lives. Anyway the Internet exploded as the time has not been ready. Today companies are faced with a completely different environment: global competition, global communication, and global information transparency and last but not least: an end consumer that behaves completely different than 10 years ago which basically impacts on all companies, if operating globally or locally. Digital media and channels are dominating the search behavior and even online purchase is becoming much more important, depending on the product category. This should be the topic of the thesis: Digitalization: Chances and Risks for multinational companies with B2B focus