Value Expressive Advertising and Innovation Acceptance in Healthcare: An Abstract

Abstract

Innovation is important to the improvement of healthcare delivery (Carter and Grover 2015; Keown et al. 2014). This paper addresses how healthcare innovation acceptance may benefit from value-expressive advertising that positions the innovation in the context of a self-image of the targeted user (Carter and Grover 2015; Johar and Sirgy 1991; Keown et al. 2014). Value-expressive advertising represents a type of advertising that aims to create an image of the user of a product or brand that is congruent with their self-image. Instead of emphasizing the functionality of a product or brand, value-expressive advertising seeks to highlight images that relate to the intended user. Value-expressive advertising creates an image of a product or brand which can be extended to a user’s self-perception. This can occur based on the product image or when an image of a typical user is included. Based on one’s self-concept, when a person finds a product or brand that has a congruent user image, the need for self-congruity is met. Self-congruity corresponds to various self-images (Aguirre-Rodriguez et al. 2012; Johar and Sirgy 1991; Malar et al. 2011). These represent an actual self-image, an ideal self-image, an actual social self-image, and an ideal social self-image. Positive attitudes precede individual or organizational actions in relation to innovations, thus affecting a decision to adhere or adopt innovations (Cabana et al. 1999; Wisdom et al. 2014). The model that is developed in this paper is based on two major relationships seen in the literature. First, value-expressive advertising that successfully reflects a person’s self-concept is positively associated with self-congruity (Aguirre-Rodriguez et al. 2012; Johar and Sirgy 1991; Gonzalez-Jimenez 2017; Sirgy 1985). Second, when the need for self-congruity is met, it is positively related to individual’s attitudes towards the tangible as well as intangible properties of the product or brand (Kressmann et al. 2006; Quester et al. 2000). Adopting the conceptualization of Johar and Sirgy (1991), the proposed model addresses how four self-image dimensions are associated with four self-congruity dimensions leading to a positive attitude towards an innovation in healthcare. Future research is needed to examine the relationship between the value-expressive appeal of healthcare innovation, related clinician self-congruity, and attitudes towards the innovation.