Consumer 3.0 and Users’ Decision of Telecommunication Products in Nigeria

Nigeria's telecommunication sector faces challenges and stagnating growth due to failure to adopt modern Consumer 3.0 principles, leading to poor decision-making, limited competitiveness, and rising consumer dissatisfaction. Hence, the study examined consumer 3.0 and users’ decision of telecommunication product in Nigeria. Specific objectives are to;(i) examine the influence of personalization expectations on user’s experience of telecommunication product; (ii) determine the effect of digital savvy on information accessibility of telecommunication product; and (iii) assess how collaborative consumption affects emotional connection of telecommunication product. A survey research design was adopted for this study with the population of 397 users of MTN who are students of university of Ilorin, Nigeria. Census was adopted, hypotheses was tested through PLS-SEM. The findings shows that personalization expectations were assessed through Customized Offers (β = 0.521, p < 0.001) and User Preference Tracking (β = 0.268, p < 0.001) significantly affect user experience except Tailored Communication (β = 0.047, p = 0.457) which had no significant effect. These variables jointly explained 58.4% of the variance (R² = 0.584) in user experience, with medium and small effect sizes for the two significant predictors, respectively. Digital savvy was examined through Technology Adoption (β = 0.461, p < 0.001) and Online Research Skills (β = 0.446, p < 0.001) significantly affect information accessibility, except Social Media Literacy (β = -0.035, p = 0.532) which had no significant effect. These variables explained 66.1% of the variance (R² = 0.661), with both significant predictors having medium effect sizes. Collaborative consumption was measured using Peer-to-Peer Services (β = 0.462, p < 0.001) was the strongest predictor, followed by Resource Sharing (β = 0.315, p < 0.001) and Sharing Economy Participation (β = 0.109, p = 0.037). Together, these dimensions explained 60.8% of the variance (R² = 0.608) in emotional connection, with medium and small practical impacts. The study concluded consumer 3.0 is a vital principle to harness positive user decisions in the telecommunication industry. It therefore recommends that telecommunications providers, particularly MTN, should prioritize developing advanced customized offer systems and user preference tracking technologies to enhance user experience, invest in innovative technology-driven information delivery platforms to improve information accessibility for digitally savvy consumers, and expand peer-to-peer service capabilities and collaborative platforms to strengthen emotional connections and influence product decisions among Nigerian users.