BETTER LATE THAN NEVER! INVESTIGATING DETERMINANTS OF AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TEMPORARY AND CONTINUOUS INNOVATION REJECTIONS

Abstract

Little research effort has been dedicated to investigate the nature and determinants of and the differences between temporary and continuous consumer rejections of innovations. To shed light on both types of consumer rejection behaviours and their underlying psychological processes, this paper applies a mixed-method approach. First, we conducted a qualitative study to investigate whether known determinants comprehensively cover reasons for both types of consumer rejections. Based on the qualitative study’s evidence, we introduce a new type of innovation resistance (transactional innovation resistance) to complement the well-known concepts of active and passive innovation resistance as drivers of rejection behaviour. Second, we validated the derived framework using a large-scale quantitative study to empirically determine each determinant’s relative importance for temporary and continuous consumer rejection of innovations. Our results demonstrate that consumers who continuously reject an innovation are primarily driven by a combinatory effect of passive and active innovation resistance. In contrast, consumers who only temporarily reject are largely motivated by a combinatory effect of transactional and active innovation resistance.