Beauty in the eyes of its beholders: Effects of design novelty on consumer preference

Fu Liu, Zhenzhong Zhu, Haipeng (Allan) Chen, Xingbo Li

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this research, we propose that promotion- (vs. prevention-) focused consumers should prefer a novel product design, an effect that we attribute to increased processing fluency. In addition, we propose that the effect of consumers’ regulatory focus should be moderated by product type, such that promotion- (prevention-) focused consumers should prefer more (less) novel designs only for utilitarian products; for hedonic products all consumers should prefer a novel design regardless of their regulatory foci. We obtain empirical evidence for these predictions across four experiments that use different operationalizations of regulatory focus and product type. We conclude by discussing the theoretical contributions and managerial implications of our research.

Original languageEnglish
Article number101969
JournalJournal of Retailing and Consumer Services
Volume53
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd

Keywords

  • Hedonic consumption
  • Product design
  • Product preference
  • Regulatory focus
  • Utilitarian consumption

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Marketing

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