Exploring the Changing Role of Children as Consumers in India

The chapter would explore the growing importance of children as consumers. The chapter would first discuss the importance, growth and views on consumer socialization theory. The chapter would then take the discussion forward by introducing the change in role of children not just as learners but as influencers. This section of the chapter would conclude by initiating a discussion to understand the similarity and differences in the two theories—consumer socialization and reverse socialization. The theoretical overview provides the researchers a premise to integrate consumer socialization theory and reverse socialization to understand how children and parents acquire learning properties to be a consumer. Based on the two theories a conceptual model was developed by the author to understand and indicate the process of children and parents becoming consumers (Sharma & Sonwaney, 2014). The chapter would further discuss the changing social and economic scenario in developing nations with special focus on India.