The determinant of consumer adoption of product innovation: a multi-component measure and its antecedents

Abstract

Product innovation can substantially improve business performance; however, user unwillingness to adopt new products often decreases performance gains. According to Reasoned Action Theory, consumer attitude determines the consumer purchase intention of a new product; however, the literature does not contain a well-established scale to measure consumer attitude towards product innovation, especially at the product category level. This study develops a category-specific measure of consumer attitude towards product innovation and investigates the relationship between consumer attitude and its antecedent factors. The procedure proposed by Churchill (1979) is used to create and refine a multi-item measurement scale. Study results reveal that consumer attitude towards product innovation contains three components of quality, value, and attractiveness. The value and attractiveness of product innovation seem more important than quality to influence consumer purchase intention; in addition, consumer change seeking has a positive effect on consumer attitude towards product innovation. Consumer product knowledge has a positive influence on value and attractiveness components; however, the influence of consumer product knowledge on the quality component is insignificant. The results provide a theoretical insight into product innovation and management implications for new product providers.