How is consumerization best defined?

Consumerization is defined as the process where technology adoption begins in consumer markets before it transitions into business environments. This phenomenon highlights how personal technology, often developed for the average consumer, influences what businesses adopt for workplace use.

As technology becomes increasingly accessible and user-friendly to consumers, employees naturally want to bring those same devices and applications into their work settings. This has led to businesses needing to adapt to the technologies that employees are familiar with, which can enhance productivity and satisfaction but also introduces challenges regarding security and IT management.

The notion of consumerization is particularly relevant in today's digital age, where smartphones, tablets, and various applications are common in personal life and, as a result, are expected or desired in professional environments as well. This shift can lead to an informal form of IT adoption known as "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD), where employees use their personal devices for work purposes.

Other definitions may touch on aspects of technology use in organizations or training methods, but they do not capture the essence of how consumer markets influence organizational technology adoption in the same way that the defined concept of consumerization does.