Passive innovation resistance – a conservative consumer perspective

Abstract

Purpose More research is required into the underlying reasons for passive innovation resistance. This paper aims to propose that consumers who passively resist innovation may merely be conservative in nature and explore a conceptual framework that could explain and predict such behaviour. Design/methodology/approach Theories from the political sciences, social psychology and marketing were studied in trying to understand why some consumers are more conservative in nature and how their attitudes may affect their thoughts, feelings and actions in the marketplace. Findings Consumers may develop conservative attitudes, such as a need for cognitive closure, nostalgia, authoritarianism, a social dominance orientation, ethnocentrism and an anti-hedonic approach towards life to combat their fear of ambiguous situations and chaos associated with deviance from in-group values. Ultimately, these attitudes may influence consumer behaviour, such as being brand loyal, unwilling to try new options and preferring nostalgic products that would lead to lower levels of ambiguity and less disruption of the status quo. Conservative consumers may also act as authoritarian parents, prefer to purchase durable materialistic products, support locally manufactured goods and refrain from purchasing products for purely hedonic pleasure in an attempt to preserve their in-group values. Originality/value The proposed framework offers more insight into the nature and consequences of passive innovation resistance and may serve as a starting point for further exploration on the fundamental characteristics of conservative consumers. The research findings may also assist marketers in managing their new product innovations strategies more successfully.

Driving forces of green consumption in sharing economy

“…to capitulate customers toward product adaptation. Innovation is the key to a sharing economy; nostalgic forces often become barriers toward innovation adoption (Tonder, 2017), but mortality anxiety is inevitable; the fear of death causes emotional existential anxiety; we propose that increase in mortality anxiety will increase the effect of nostalgia in the context of a sharing economy.…”

“…Nostalgia is defined as the determinant of resistance to new innovative products (Tonder, 2017). Boeuf (2019) pioneered the literature that state nostalgia negatively affects innovation adoption.…”

“…Boeuf (2019) pioneered the literature that state nostalgia negatively affects innovation adoption. Concerning the sharing economy, where people are encouraged to choose and produce differently is also affected by nostalgia; however, media and other popular communication channels play a vital role to adopt new products (Phillipov, 2016) and purchase behaviors (Tonder, 2017). Consumption trends are affected by one's belongingness to the past; Leone (2015) argued that the market depends upon time, and time develops tastes and patterns.…”

Cultural distance, innovation and export performance

“…Control variables We used the number of full-time employees as a proxy for firm size, and together with industry type, the geographical distance [5] as well as legal and political and economic distance between the home country and foreign markets entered them as control variables in the models. We also controlled for the natural logarithm of per capita GDP of foreign markets (measured in current US dollars) (World Bank, 2014).…”

Design thinking traits and cognitive passive resistance: mediating effect of linear thinking

“…Concerning innovation adoption, the literature presents two forms of resistance to innovation: active and passive (Castro et al , 2020; Koch et al , 2021; Van Tonder, 2017). Active resistance is an unfavourable (Castro et al , 2020).…”