Firms and governments are increasingly interested in learning to exploit the value of lead user innovations for commercial advantage. Improvements to lead user theory are needed to inform and guide these efforts. In this paper we empirically test and confirm the basic tenants of lead user...

Lead users are proposed as a valuable resource for marketers in terms of the (1) development, (2) adoption, and (3) diffusion of new products. We present the first consumer study to provide evidence that the latter two suggestions are justified. First, we find that lead users demonstrate...

Many companies offer websites that enable customers to design their own individual products, which the manufacturer can then produce to order. To date, the economic value of products self-designed using mass customization (MC) toolkits has been attributed to the two factors of preference fit...

Customized assembly occurs when a consumer makes customization decisions and participates in the construction or modification of a product. While customization increases satisfaction with the end-product, less is known about the utility derived from the assembly effort. Three studies show that...

This article uses the functionalist perspective of emotion to demonstrate that the influence of sadness on indulgent consumption depends on the presence of a hedonic eating goal. Sadness heightens a person’s sensitivity to the potentially harmful consequences of indulgent consumption, which...

The use of advertised reference price promotions, such as “regularly $119.99, sale price $39.99,” is ubiquitous in the marketplace. Thirty years of research supports the conclusion that advertised reference prices (e.g., $119.99) exert an influence on consumers’ responses to offer prices...

Neurobiological theories of affective processing suggest that different affective states can make people more sensitive to the stimulation impinging on different sensory channels. Five experiments show that consumers in a negative affective state experience enhanced sensitivity to the tactile...