Objective vs subjective design newness

Abstract

PurposeThe paper aims to examine whether (1) deviation of design (i.e. objective design newness) is distinct to consumers' perception of design newness (i.e. subjective design newness) and (2) subjective design newness rather than objective design newness evokes the emotion of interest and enhances product evaluation.Design/methodology/approachIn total five sets of quasi-experiments were conducted on the natural manipulations of design newness. Specifically, the first four studies examine consumers' perception of design newness, feeling-of-interest and product evaluation toward old and new Apple's iOS (i.e., iPhone OS) icons when a new Apple's iOS is released. The fifth study generalized the findings to the new design of XiaoMi MiPhone.FindingsAcross five quasi-experimental studies, the authors found that (1) consumers do not necessarily perceive an objectively new design to be subjectively new; (2) subjective design newness, but not objective design newness, evokes interest and (3) interest, in turn, enhances product evaluation and behavioral intention toward an innovation.Research limitations/implicationsThe current finding extended the current literature on design newness by demonstrating that subjective (vs objective) design newness provides a more holistic account of consumers' interest and positive product evaluation toward the innovations.Practical implicationsThe research showed that simply updating or altering the design of a product does not evoke consumers' perception of design newness and positive product evaluation. Instead, designer and managers must explore ways to evoke consumers' perception of novelty, complexity, unfamiliarity, atypicality and difference. Furthermore, the current finding demonstrated that subjective design newness can be used to evoke consumer interest and, therefore, result in positive purchase evaluation.Originality/valueThe current research is the first to examine (1) the difference between objective and subjective design newness, (2) the emotional response toward design newness and (3) the emotion of interest as a mediator that explain the strong relationship between design newness and positive product evaluation.

Impacts of information asymmetry on users' payment rates: evidence from trading data of Chinese knowledge payment platform

“…Secondly, knowledge providers should focus on improving the quality and promotion of their products. Users' demand for knowledge products primarily stems from their academic or professional needs, which requires knowledge providers to offer individualized services and frequent product updates (Sung et al, 2021). In addition, as the information obtained by users has a crucial impact on their purchasing decisions, knowledge providers should enhance the completeness of platform authentication information and regularly share professional knowledge to increase their visibility.…”

“…Secondly, knowledge providers should focus on improving the quality and promotion of their products. Users' demand for knowledge products primarily stems from their academic or professional needs, which requires knowledge providers to offer individualized services and frequent product updates (Sung et al. , 2021).…”