Consumer vulnerability within digital platforms as service ecosystems

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to advance understanding of consumer vulnerability in digital service ecosystems by extending existing typologies to include a third conceptually distinct form - unobserved vulnerability - alongside experienced vulnerability and observed vulnerability. Drawing on service-dominant logic, it proposes a framework that integrates the perspectives of platform companies, regulators and consumers to examine how institutional arrangements and consumer factors shape vulnerability in human-to-human and human-to-algorithm service interactions.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual paper synthesizes marketing and legal literatures on consumer vulnerability, platform governance and regulation. It refines the visibility-based typology and integrates it into a service-dominant logic-informed framework, supported by illustrative cases and a future research agenda.FindingsVulnerability in digital service ecosystems emerges from the interplay of platform governance (openness and transparency), regulatory frameworks and consumer factors (stigma and digital literacy), mediated through human-to-human and human-to-algorithm interactions. The proposed typology distinguishes between experienced vulnerability (recognized by the consumer), observed vulnerability (identified by third parties) and unobserved vulnerability (structural disadvantage that remains invisible to both consumers and external observers).Originality/valueBy introducing the concept of unobserved vulnerability and situating it within service-dominant logic, this paper extends prior typologies of consumer vulnerability. The framework demonstrates how visibility functions as a critical lens for understanding consumer disadvantage in digital service ecosystems. It contributes to marketing scholarship by clarifying the structural conditions under which vulnerability emerges and by outlining implications for theory, managerial practice and regulatory design.