“So that's what that is”: Examining the impact of analogy on consumers' knowledge development for really new products

Abstract

The ever-accelerating pace of technological change has heralded an increasing number of new product introductions involving products that defy classification within existing categories. With the advent of these so-called "really new products," new questions about the influence of prior knowledge on consumer learning emerge. Chief among these is whether and to what extent prior knowledge plays a role in the comprehension of such products. Applying analogical learning theory to address this question, this investigation presents evidence indicating that analogy provides an effective link to the structural knowledge needed for consumers to learn about truly novel innovations. Reflecting this, subjects who engaged in analogical processing of new product information were more focused in their processing than subjects who processed the same information in the absence of analogy. Moreover, there was evidence

Perceptions, Preferences, and Acceptance of Information and Communication Technologies in Older-Adult Community Care Settings in Ireland: A Case-Study and Ranked-Care Program Analysis

“…In line with the literature in this area, and as with perceptions, familiarity with ICT appeared to influence the willingness to accept technological interventions in community care (Brown and Venkatesh 2005;Gregan-Paxtan et al 2002;Moreau et al 2001). It is unsurprising, therefore, that the younger participants,, who reported the highest rates of technical proficiency, valued technologies that had a more technically complicated means of intervention.…”

Interest in Complex Novelty

“…Previous research showed that communicating analogies of a new product to something known increases product comprehension (Feiereisen, Wong, & Broderick, 2008;Gregan-Paxton, Hibbard, Brunel, & Azar, 2002). Based on this, we predicted that communicating similarity of a complex novel product with a comparable familiar product would increase coping potential and interest in the product.…”

Consumer evaluations of brand extension: The roles of case-based reminding on brand-to-brand similarity

“…Previous studies have explored the idea that consumer evaluations of a new product could be manipulated by reminding consumers of a similar example to enhance the corresponding product attributes with the analogy process (Goode, Dahl, & Moreau, 2010;Gregan-Paxton & Roedder, 1997;Gregan-Paxton et al, 2002). Therefore, the present research approaches the issue of consumer evaluations of brand extension from the perspective of case-based reminding and suggests that the proposed brand extension evaluations can be manipulated by reminding consumers of a similar brand in the extension category.…”