This research examines the relationship between desire for control and acceptance of new products. We hypothesize that desire for control—the need to personally control outcomes in one's life—acts as a barrier to new product acceptance. Three experiments provide support for this hypothesis. This effect holds when desire for control is high as a dispositional trait (Studies 1 and 3) and when it is situationally induced (Study 2). We also identify an intervention to increase new product acceptance based on the idea that new products threaten one's sense of control. Specifically, framing new products as potentially enhancing one's sense of control increases acceptance of new products by those high in desire for control (Study 3). This finding offers some evidence for the underlying process and helps guide managerial actions.

This research demonstrates that under states of certainty consumers with a relatively stronger global (local) identity prefer global (local) brands, whereas under states of uncertainty, consumers with a relatively stronger global (local) identity prefer local (global) brands. This effect occurs because uncertainty (certainty) activates a divergent (convergent) thinking style, which results in a preference for options that are more distant from (closer to) the identity to which consumers associate more strongly. The effect holds both when individuals’ global-local citizenship identity is measured and when it is manipulated. The research further establishes an important boundary condition for the effect. The effect holds in the citizenship identity context because people normally associate themselves with both local and global citizenship identities, and situational or dispositional factors only influence the degree to which they associate with each identity. The effect does not surface when local-global citizenship identities are construed as interfering, such that holding one identity is conceived as being in conflict with holding the other.

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