Our research examines the role of prior knowledge in learning about really new products that make existing product knowledge obsolete. Those with higher prior knowledge incorrectly generalize from their knowledge of existing products in the same product market and assume that they already know...

When encountering novel products, people typically use analogies to familiar products to describe or “make sense” of new ones. When cell phones were first introduced, for example, they were compared to land-line phones and walkie-talkies. The areas of product knowledge from which people draw...

In this research, we examine the impact of imagination-focused visualization on the evaluation of really new products (RNPs). We compare imagination-focused visualization with memory-focused visualization and demonstrate that focusing on the imaginative aspects of an RNP leads to higher...

In this research we examine the role of process vs. outcome-focused mental simulation in new product evaluation. We first show that consumers naturally focus on product benefits when they evaluate incrementally new products (INPs), but have a more balanced focus on both the benefits and process...

In this research, we examine how manipulating the type of information processing mode (cognitive vs. affective) at a different point of time elicits the unique effects of process and outcome simulation on the evaluation of RNPs. Our findings indicate that in an instant evaluation scenario,...

In this article, the authors consider the nexus of social networks and radically new products. These new products are so innovative that they forge new product categories, and social networks might be particularly fruitful in their development, dissemination, and help to foster growth and...

The goal of this research is to improve preference measurement for really new products. An initial assumption validated in the first study is that consumers have greater uncertainty when estimating the usefulness of really new products than they have with incremental new products. Consumers cope...