3.1.1 Digital Vanguard

The Digital Vanguard at 22 per cent, along with the Security-Minded Post-Material Users (also 22 per cent), makes up the largest Internet milieu within the decision-maker group. They are the digital avantgarde, who view individualism and independence as the starting point of their thinking and action.

The Digital Vanguard comprises individualists who like to express themselves creatively in their profession. They are flexible and able to adapt when required to adjust to new situations and corporate structures, but they have a mind of their own, want to realise ideas, do some things differently and think outside the box. Their career goal is not to „get to the top“, but above all to develop themselves personally and to seek new challenges constantly. For the most part, they have been in a management position for only a few years. The Digital Vanguard is geographically and mentally mobile, thinks in global dimensions and is demonstratively liberal and cosmopolitan. These traits lead them to view the Internet as an opportunity to discover new lands for themselves independently of time and space, to maintain extensive networks and to market themselves. The Internet is their omnipresent option pool which can also be the source of new business models and ideas – whether with respect to products and services or to customer and partner networks.