When Is a New Thing a Good Thing? Technological Change, Product Form Design, and Perceptions of Value for Product Innovations

Abstract

I nnovation researchers recognize that the uncertainty with regard to the value-creating potential of product innovations increases with their technological novelty, and have argued that the usefulness and value of novel products are socially constructed. Despite this recognition, researchers have not explored how the outer form in which a technological innovation is embodied influences the processes through which the innovation's value is constructed and perceived. In this paper we argue that by embodying novel technologies in objects with specific functional, symbolic, and aesthetic properties, innovating firms also endow their products with cues that trigger a variety of cognitive and emotional responses. Drawing on psychological research we articulate how such cognitive and emotional responses underlie initial perceptions of value and theorize how innovating firms can influence them through product form design. Our framework explains how product form contributes to perceptions of value by modulating the actual technological novelty of a product innovation and facilitating how customers cope with it. Our theoretical framework makes an important contribution to innovation research and practice because it articulates how product form can be used strategically to achieve specific cognitive and emotional effects and enhance the initial customer perceptions of the value of an innovation.

Interest in Complex Novelty

“…Future research could test this by, for instance, investigating whether coping potential with one series of complex novel products can produce interest in another set of complex novel products. In addition, it could be investigated whether similarity or familiarity that does not directly affect product-specific understanding can increase coping potential and interest in complex novelty (e.g., product design that reminds people of something familiar; see also Carbon & Leder, 2005;Rindova & Petkova, 2007).…”

“…Also, research has shown that interest in an unclear task was highest when people experience moderate levels of selfefficacy, whereas low and high self-efficacy resulted in lower interest because the task was respectively too difficult or too easy (Silvia, 2003). In addition, in a theoretical analysis of technological change and product design, Rindova and Petkova (2007) argued that people might be better able to cope with novel technologies when they are presented in a familiar product design, because the familiarity makes it easier to comprehend. 3 Finally, Carbon and Leder (2005) showed that innovative product design becomes more attractive when people are repeatedly exposed to it (see also Carbon & Leder, 2007), presumably because the extra elaboration increases their understanding of the product.…”

“…The question is how to introduce novel products to increase the chance that people will become interested in these products. One issue may play a role: Novelty can be challenging because it may come with unfamiliarity and difficulty in understanding it (e.g., Mukherjee & Hoyer, 2001;Rindova & Petkova, 2007; see also Oreg, 2003;Oreg & Goldenberg, 2015). This does not concern "simple" novelty like new flavors or modernized package design but rather is an issue of complex novelty like technological change.…”

Effects of Brand Attachment and Perceived Aesthetic on Intention to Purchase New Smartphone

“…사용자가 지각하는 심미성은 특정 제품 이나 시스템을 시각적으로 아름답다고 인지하 는 정도를 말한다 (Lavie and Tractinsky, 2004). 특히 제품의 디자인은 소비자에게 시각적 정보 이외에도 인지적 주의를 끌고 정서를 유발하여 소비행동에 영향을 미친다 (Rindova and Petkova, 2007). Tractinsky (2000,2004) 사람들은 새로운 행동보다 기존에 하던 행동 을 계속 하기를 원하며 이는 현상(status quo)을 유지하려는 편향(bias)에서 비롯된다.…”

Alliance strategy: context, process, and requirements

“…Yet elsewhere in the organization, employees were not as intensely engaged in the formation process. Their cognitive and emotional buy-in was far less (Rindova and Petkova, 2007), a challenge which the alliance managers did not consider their responsibility. Alliance managers tended to focus on their internal leaders to keep these updated.…”