A research on the mediating role of consumers' technological readiness level and hedonic and utilitarian consumption behaviors in the effect of digital transformation on digital marketing

Today, when digitalization is in every field, they are advancing themselves towards this area in transactions. There are changes made by the company in order to use digitalization as a new situation in the products, services and business processes it will carry out in order to advance its business formats towards this area. As a result of integrating digitalization into all areas of the business, all activities and presentation processes will change radically. In this process, it is necessary to communicate with customers in a timely manner, to reach them on time and to maintain the relationship. Depending on the spread of the internet and the preference for mobile use, customers also use these channels in digital areas. Consumers who use these channels in order to do online marketing are included in digital marketing. This hedonic behavior, which means that consumers prefer a pleasure-oriented process or use a lifestyle focused on that, also affects consumption habits. It will always be more meaningful to examine consumption activities in both pleasure and utilitarian terms. Utilitarian consumption corresponds to cognitive, that is, rational shopping behaviors and a pre-planned shopping process. Therefore, it would be more meaningful to examine the hedonic and utilitarian behaviors of customers by considering them together. Technology is constantly advancing. In this process, it is reaching a maturity stage. As a result, the readiness of the consumer as a technology expresses the level of development required for the commercialization of the service or product. This study aims to increase the effect of digital transformation on digital marketing while determining the extent to which hedonic and utilitarian consumer behavior and technological readiness levels mediate the process. Data were collected with a survey form created with scale expressions determined in line with this scope. Data were collected via Google Form with this survey form created in a five-point Likert form. Consumers consisting of internet users in Istanbul were determined as the target audience with the convenience sampling method. The study was terminated when 447 survey data were obtained. The study was conducted in the period of December 2023-January 2024. Data were analyzed with the SPSS statistical program. Our hypotheses based on the model were tested using the t-test and One-Way Anova or Kruskal Wallis analyses. As a result of the study, it was determined that digital transformation affects digital marketing, while hedonic and utilitarian behaviors and technological readiness also have a mediating effect. Conducting this study in other similar fields will contribute to businesses in the sector as well as the academic field.