Spotlight on researcher Stefanie Sohn

What are you working on right now?

I am researching how consumers participate in digital security and how they can contribute to the security of the companies and platforms they use. This participation includes everyday actions such as learning about online risks and using security features, as well as active behaviors like providing feedback to security manuals, reporting fraud, fake accounts, or unsafe content.

My work addresses this topic from three connected perspectives. First, together with colleagues from computer science, we develop and test AI-based tools for online security education, including a chatbot designed to inform and empower users. Second, we examine how consumers experience participation opportunities in digital security and how they shape consumers’ decisions, and their relationships with companies, asking whether such participation is experienced as helpful or burdensome. Third, we focus on how digital security engagement can be reliably measured and encouraged by identifying the factors that motivate consumers and help companies better support this engagement.

Which research question would you like to find an answer to?

One of my core research questions concerns how consumers perceive and respond to opportunities offered by companies and other organizations to engage in security-related initiatives, such as cybersecurity. Even though many companies invest in educating consumers and encourage behaviors such as incident reporting in their initiatives, little is known about whether these approaches are effective and how they shape trust and consumer-company relationships.

For instance, I examine how inviting consumers to participate in digital security shapes their perceptions of the company. I expect that such invitations can foster trust by signaling that consumers are viewed as responsible and competent partners rather than passive users. Digital security is a high-stakes domain with potential harm for both consumers and the platforms and services they rely on, participation may operate differently than in other marketing contexts. Understanding these distinct mechanisms and developing relevant theoretical explanations is a central focus of my work.

How do digital technologies affect us and our behavior as consumers?

Digital technologies influence how we make decisions, how much responsibility we feel, and how we interact with companies. They do more than to increase convenience; they quietly shape what we notice, what we trust, what we prefer and, overall, how we behave as consumers.

For example, online platforms ask users to help keep environments safe by reporting fake reviews, fraud, or suspicious content. This turns consumers from passive users into active contributors and can change how responsible they feel for the platform and how much they value the company behind it. Another example is the growing use of agentic AI in online shopping. Beyond static recommendation algorithms, many shopping environments now include AI systems that ask questions, adapt their responses, and actively guide consumers through decisions. This can subtly shift preferences: consumers may place greater weight on products that signal safety.

You have received funding to study the role of consumers in corporate cybersecurity. What is the project about?

The project examines how consumers can be meaningfully involved in organizational cybersecurity. Instead of viewing consumers only as potential weak points, it explores whether it can be meaningful for organizations but also for the individual to enable and foster Consumer Cybersecurity Engagement that is, how individuals contribute to the security of, for instance, companies and digital platforms by learning about online risks, following security guidance, and reporting suspicious activity.

Importantly, the project does not aim to shift responsibility from companies to consumers. Rather, it seeks to understand how consumers can be supported as partners in an area that is highly relevant to them personally. By engaging in cybersecurity, consumers can help prevent financial losses, and identity theft, while at the same time supporting the security and reliability of the platforms and services they use in everyday life.

Why is it important to consider consumers as a potential target? And what perspectives does the project offer?

It is important to consider consumers as a potential target because cyberattacks increasingly reach and harm them directly, while also shaping trust, risk perceptions, and evaluations of firms. Security incidents experienced by consumers, such as fraudulent messages or compromised accounts, often reflect back on the company, regardless of where the breach originated, and can therefore damage reputations and erode trust even when the organization itself was not directly attacked.

This project offers a consumer-centered and marketing-oriented perspective on cybersecurity by examining how consumers perceive and respond to company-initiated security measures. It conceptualizes digital security as a relational and communicative process that affects trust, responsibility, and the quality of consumer-company relationships. By analyzing consumer engagement with cybersecurity initiatives, the project contributes to a deeper understanding of how firms can reduce risk exposure, strengthen trust, and support more resilient digital marketplaces. Beyond firm-level effects, the project also highlights the potential for consumer-focused security initiatives to foster broader digital security awareness that extends across platforms and everyday online interactions.

How do you hope others will benefit from your research?

I hope my research helps companies develop effective ways to encourage consumer engagement in cybersecurity and turn this engagement into strategies that are both profitable and purposeful. Beyond the business context, I aim to show how supporting consumer cybersecurity engagement can spill over into everyday digital behavior, helping individuals stay safer online across different platforms and situations.