Consumers' Resistance to Innovations – Investigating the Cases of Passive and Active Innovation Resistance

Innovation is a strategic imperative in today's economies. In the US, for example, firms have invested $269 billion in current-year dollars on research and development (R&D) in 2007. However, innovations face a severe risk of failure. Recent studies report failure rates between 50% and 90%. Innovations can only become successful in the market if they are accepted and finally adopted by consumers. Most new products, however, fail as they are rejected by consumers due to their resistance to innovation. The aim of this research is to investigate which adoption barriers are responsible for triggering innovation resistance. First, we use a qualitative study to identify potential product-specific barriers and to conceptually link them to innovation resistance. Then, we use a quantitative survey to determine the relative influence of these product specific-barriers and their interaction with consumers’ predispositions on attitude formation within the adoption process.

Citation:

Sven Heidenreich, Matthias Handrich, and Thorben Schmidt (2011) ,"Consumers' Resistance to Innovations – Investigating the Cases of Passive and Active Innovation Resistance ", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Zhihong Yi, Jing Jian Xiao, and June Cotte and Linda Price, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 230-232.