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Recent research advocates the importance of emotions in new product development. We investigate whether initial exposure to either a hedonic or utilitarian description of an innovation increases willingness to try the innovation. We extend Wood and Moreau's (2006) expectations-emotions-evaluation model to include the role of arousal, perceived risk (a negative evaluation), and willingness to try. We find that the model is significantly different for hedonic and utilitarian descriptions of a radical innovation (automated highway). We also find that the effect of arousal on positive (optimism) and negative (anxiety) emotions is greater for hedonic rather than utilitarian descriptions. Finally, we replicate our results using real-world descriptions of two radical innovations. We discuss our results and provide managerial implications and limitations of our research.

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Research on customer relationships has documented that customers focus not only on the functional benefits they receive, but also the relational benefits. This study examines the underpinnings of customer relationships designated as professional relationships, casual acquaintances, personal acquaintances, and friendships, with regard to the relational factors: emotional attachment to a particular provider; personal advice seeking, and socializing outside of the service encounter. A survey is used to examine relationship types across four service industries (healthcare, financial services, hair care, and automotive repair). It is found that relationship types can be distinguished based on the relational factors, and that relationship types vary by service.