Abstract
When deciding whether to adopt an innovative product or service, consumers often experience different levels of anxiety (i.e., nervousness) that prompt them to resist purchase (e.g., fear of learning new technologies, disruption of established habits or beliefs). In such cases, consumers’ anxiety is mitigated by “validation” through externality (e.g., the number of early adopters). To reduce consumers’ anxiety, firms can also invest in “familiarization” through promotion (e.g., offering free trials). We conceptualize innovation as a product that engenders anxiety, and present a model that employs a consumer utility model focusing on the psychological dimension. We examine the firm's profit-maximizing promotion and pricing decisions when selling to forward-looking consumers in the presence of externality. Our equilibrium analysis reveals that, unlike the conventional wisdom for promoting new products, for anxiety-inducing innovations with externality, accelerating the speed of adoption through promotion can actually be detrimental to the firm.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1236-1250 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Production and Operations Management |
Volume | 27 |
Issue number | 7 |
Early online date | 28 Feb 2018 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 11 Jul 2018 |
Keywords
- consumer anxiety
- externality
- familiarization
- innovation adoption
- new product introduction
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Management Science and Operations Research
- Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
- Management of Technology and Innovation