Abstract:

In this paper we investigate the interactive effect of product distinctiveness and prototypical feature emphasis on audience appeal. Prior research has shown that market audiences sometimes find distinctive combinations of features appealing, but sometimes they prefer when bundles of features are prototypical. We seek to further advance our understanding of this ambivalence among audiences in evaluations by examining how segmenting and emphasizing prototypical and distinctive features can change social evaluations of products. We define feature segmentation as spatial or temporal boundaries producers can create between features to change how a product is perceived. We theorize that feature segmentation and emphasis will influence audience evaluations of distinctive products because it changes how an individual thinks about reconciling differences between features, and lessens the severity of penalties applied to products with features that don’t align with individual audience members’ category expectations. We propose to investigate two different ways in which segmenting and emphasizing prototypical features can make distinctive features less salient, weakening the negative effect of distinctiveness on appeal: in terms of temporal, and spatial segmentation and emphasis of features. We will do so by using both textual and visual representations of products. We will test these predictions in five experimental studies which we expect will provide empirical support for two hypotheses we develop. We anticipate that these results will contribute to a better explanation of the inconsistent findings on how audiences react to distinctiveness. We hope to show that the temporal order and spatial positioning with which audiences encounter distinctive product features plays a fundamental role in how appealing their social evaluations of distinctive products are. Thus, we introduce a theoretically novel factor to explain how producers can craft products in ways that makes individuals more amenable to products with distinctive feature combinations.

Please choose your submission type: Developmental Paper

Primary Track: Strategy-as-Practice

Keywords: Strategic performance;Strategizing;Strategy tools;Strategy-as-practice

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Dr. Andrew Argue