Emotional Responses on Initial Exposure to a Hedonic or Utilitarian Description of a Radical Innovation

Abstract

Recent research advocates the importance of emotions in new product development. We investigate whether initial exposure to either a hedonic or utilitarian description of an innovation increases willingness to try the innovation. We extend Wood and Moreau's (2006) expectations-emotions-evaluation model to include the role of arousal, perceived risk (a negative evaluation), and willingness to try. We find that the model is significantly different for hedonic and utilitarian descriptions of a radical innovation (automated highway). We also find that the effect of arousal on positive (optimism) and negative (anxiety) emotions is greater for hedonic rather than utilitarian descriptions. Finally, we replicate our results using real-world descriptions of two radical innovations. We discuss our results and provide managerial implications and limitations of our research.

An Extended Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour to Predict the Usage Intention of the Electric Car: A Multi-Group Comparison

“…In general, the result confirms the relevance and importance of integrating emotions towards car driving and electric cars in the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour framework, which is in line with the conclusions from earlier research as to the pivotal role of feelings in this decision making process [6,10,13,52,73,120,121].…”

“…Humans were meant to rule over the rest of nature. (13). The balance of nature is very delicate and easily upset.…”

“…The Affect Infusion Model (AIM) posits that decision making in the course of substantive processing about complex stimuli made without the benefit of objective evidence, should show great affective effects [52]. Chaudhuri et al [13] argue that the innovation literature has often overlooked emotions as a cause of successful diffusion. They argue that the role of emotions is particularly eminent in the context of new products that represent radical innovations.…”

“…I often talk with others about a more environmentally friendly way of living (12) . My clothes are made environmentally friendly (13) . My house is extra isolated (14) .…”

“…Traditional innovation models have largely ignored the role of emotions [6][7][8][9], especially in case of high involvement decisions about complex products such as cars, notwithstanding the fact that emotions play an important role in these decisions [10][11][12]. Also, in the context of the adoption of new, innovative and environmentally products, such as hybrid or electric cars, the role of anticipated emotions is particularly eminent [13][14][15]. Emotions towards a complex innovative and eco-friendly product such as an electric car may play an important role as determinants of the intention to use it.…”