Both Good from Afar…and Far from Good? Mental Representation Changes Consumer Preference for Products from a Brand with a Reputation for Innovativeness

There is widespread agreement that firms and brands benefit from fostering a reputation for innovativeness. For example, past research has documented a variety of ways in which a reputation for innovativeness improves firm performance, including improved stock returns (Mizik and Jacobson 2008), increased customer loyalty (Henard and Dacin 2010), and increased customer satisfaction (Kunz, Schmitt, and Meyer 2011), among other benefits (Barone and Jewell 2013; Stock and Zacharias 2013; Zandan 1992). However, it is also common for consumers to have apprehensions about innovativeness. For example, consumers are more likely to associate innovative products with expectations for product malfunctions as compared to their less innovative counterparts (Ali 2000; Marks 2012; Schneider and Hall 2010). Therefore, consumers may simultaneously maintain both positive and negative associations with innovation. On one hand, innovation has the potential to introduce desirable and novel products and product features to the market (Henard and Dacin 2010; Kunz, Schmitt, and Meyer 2011). On the other hand, these novel products and product features may be less likely to function in accord with expectations, as compared to more established offerings (Ali 2000; Hirunyawipada and Paswan 2006; Kiely 1997; Pavlou 2003; Ram and Sheth 1989). Building on the understanding that a reputation for innovativeness is accompanied by associations related to both desirability (e.g., exciting new features) and feasibility (e.g., functional risk, the possibility of product malfunction), we contend that the effect of a brand reputation for innovativeness on consumers’ interest in products from that brand will vary based on whether the behavioral context directs consumers’ attention to either desirability-related or feasibility-related product associations.