Technological Expectation and Consumer Preferences for Product Form

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

9-2012

Abstract

Increasingly, manufacturers address consumers' fear of product obsolescence by offering products in a modular form, hence allowing the consumer to replace or upgrade components as needed. The extant literature, however, has not studied consumers' responses to product modularity. This study explores how consumers weigh potential benefits (e.g., alleviate obsolescence concerns) vis-a-vis downsides (e.g., magnify complexity perceptions) to arrive at product-form preferences. The study further extends the literature by showing product lifecycle stages and order-of-entry to moderate the impact of product modularity on consumer preferences.

Keywords

Modularity, Obsolescence, Technological expectation, Product complexity

Discipline

Marketing | Technology and Innovation

Research Areas

Marketing

Publication

Journal of Business Research

Volume

65

Issue

9

First Page

1290

Last Page

1294

ISSN

0148-2963

Identifier

10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.10.032

Publisher

Elsevier

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.10.032

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