5 Articles Consumerism as a Source for Innovation and Product Development * Associate professor, Ph.D., Department of International Economic Relations and Business, University of National and World Economy, e-mail: milanka.slavova@gmail.com Milanka Slavova * Summary: Consumerism is a term that has undergone variety of changes in its meanings. There are a lot of overlapping and contradictions in its usage and interaction with innovation. The aim of the article is to explore consumerism as a source of innovation by doing a literature review. The diversity of meanings as well as the common features and the differences in their manifestation in the various parts of the world is the basis for exploring consumerism as a reason for innovation and product development from three major aspects: (i) consumerism as a driver of economic growth; (ii) consumerism as protection of consumer rights; and (iii) consumerism as customers’ empowerment. The diverse concepts of consumerism determine a variety of effects on innovation and new product development in the companies. They can be summarized as a constant search for co-created sustainable and shared value innovations. Key words: Consumerism, Crowdsourcing, Frugal Innovation, New Product Development, Social Innovation JEL Classification: M 110 1. Background C onsumerism is a term that has a variety of meanings. The article explores them by the research method of literature review and summary of the major interpretations of the term "consumerism" through the years and its impact on innovation. Swagler (1994) traces down the first usage of the word in 1944 describing the cooperative movement in the USA in the 1930s. The term started to be used more often after the introduction of the Consumer Bill of Rights by President John F. Kennedy in 1962. The Bill stated that consumers’ rights should be safe, informed, to choose, and should be heard. The following American administrations added the rights of consumers to a remedy, to consumer education and service. Consumerism was understood mainly as consumer rights' protection. The focus of the research was primarily on the needs to protect consumer interests, the quality of the products, advertising and sales promotion decency, the activities of consumer movements and the impact of government and companies on consumer safety (Magnuson, 1972; Kotler, 1972; Cravens and Hills, 1973; Jones and Gardner, 1976; Mayer, 1989; Swagler, 1994). Though the research concentrated