As Time Goes By : Do Cold Feet Follow Warm Intentions for Really-New vs. Incrementally-New Products?

Combining prior theory about really-new products with temporal construal theory, the authors show in four field studies that consumers follow-through less often on positive purchase intentions to buy really-new products relative to intentions to buy incrementally-new products, with the decrement growing with time. Compared to consumers of incrementally-new products, consumers of really-new products are less likely to think concretely about the circumstances of buying and using the products and are more poorly calibrated in their expectations of initial product use. The authors discuss implications for marketing of really-new products and market research on really-new products