Consumer Management of Digital Subscription Portfolios: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

This study systematically reviews how consumers manage digital subscription portfolios across four interrelated dimensions: accumulation, evaluation, strain, and adjustment. It aims to integrate fragmented research on multihoming, bundling, switching, retention, churn, sharing, access-tier transitions, and other subscription-management behaviors within a broader portfolio perspective. The study employs systematic literature review methodology. A two-phase Scopus search was conducted using predefined search strings and eligibility criteria covering consumer-facing digital subscription services. Following duplicate removal, title-and-abstract screening, and full-text assessment, 13 peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2026 were included. The studies were systematically coded according to their characteristics, theoretical perspectives, behavioral evidence, portfolio mechanisms, consumer decisions, and their relevance to accumulation, evaluation, strain, and adjustment. The evidence was synthesized through descriptive mapping and qualitative cross-study comparison. The review shows that digital subscription management extends beyond isolated decisions such as switching, retention or churn. Consumers may simultaneously accumulate, evaluate, retain, replace, share, or otherwise reconfigure subscriptions. Evaluation and adjustment are the most extensively represented dimensions, while strain remains comparatively underdeveloped and fragmented across affordability, switching and lock-in frictions, fragmentation, privacy, coordination, and management-related burdens. The evidence also indicates substantial overlap among the four dimensions but does not support a fixed sequential or causal Accumulation–Evaluation–Strain–Adjustment process. Methodologically, the literature relies largely on intentions, stated or hypothetical choices, self-reported configurations, and analytical or predictive models rather than directly observed portfolio behavior. This review contributes by shifting the unit of analysis from isolated subscription decisions toward a digital subscription portfolio perspective. It integrates previously separate research streams through a four-dimensional organizing framework while preserving distinctions among different mechanisms, decisions, and evidence types. The review also identifies portfolio strain, longitudinal behavioral evidence, cross-market generalizability, and integrative portfolio-level modeling as important priorities for future research.