Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a state-of-the-art review of research on consumers experiencing vulnerability to describe the current situation of the consumers experiencing vulnerability literature and develop an up-to-date synthesised definition of consumers experiencing vulnerability.

Design/methodology/approach

This systematic review, guided by the PRISMA framework, takes a multi-disciplinary approach to identify 310 articles published between 2010 and 2019 examining consumers experiencing vulnerability. Descriptive analysis of the data is undertaken in combination with a thematic and text mining approach using Leximancer software.

Findings

A definition of consumers experiencing vulnerability is developed- “unique and subjective experiences where characteristics such as states, conditions and/or external factors lead to a consumer experiencing a sense of powerlessness in consumption settings”. The findings reveal consumers experiencing vulnerability have often been classified using a uni-dimensional approach (opposed to a multi-dimensional), focussing on one factor of vulnerability, the most prevalent of these being economic and age factors. A lack of research has examined consumers experiencing vulnerability based upon geographical remoteness, gender and sexual exploitation.

Originality/value

This paper is one of the first to examine consumers experiencing vulnerability using a systematic approach and text mining analysis to synthesise a large set of articles, which subsequently reduces the potential for researchers’ interpretative bias. Further, it is the first to generate a data-driven definition of consumers experiencing vulnerability. It provides targeted recommendations to allow further scholarly, policy and practical contributions to this area.

中文翻译：

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体验脆弱性的消费者：文献中的一种游戏状态

目的

本文的目的是对消费者遭受脆弱性的研究进行最新回顾，以描述消费者经历脆弱性文献的现状，并制定消费者经历脆弱性的最新综合定义。

设计/方法/方法

该系统评价在 PRISMA 框架的指导下，采用多学科方法来确定 2010 年至 2019 年期间发表的 310 篇文章，研究面临脆弱性的消费者。数据的描述性分析是结合使用 Leximancer 软件的主题和文本挖掘方法进行的。

发现

消费者经历脆弱性的定义被制定——“独特和主观的体验，其中状态、条件和/或外部因素等特征导致消费者在消费环境中体验到无能为力的感觉”。调查结果表明，经常使用单维方法（与多维方法相反）对经历脆弱性的消费者进行分类，重点关注脆弱性的一个因素，其中最普遍的是经济和年龄因素。由于地理偏远、性别和性剥削，缺乏研究调查了消费者的脆弱性。

原创性/价值

本文是第一个使用系统方法和文本挖掘分析来综合大量文章来检查消费者经历脆弱性的论文之一，从而减少了研究人员解释性偏见的可能性。此外，它是第一个为遭受脆弱性的消费者生成数据驱动的定义。它提供了有针对性的建议，以便为该领域提供进一步的学术、政策和实践贡献。