Continuous Market Growth Beyond Functional Satiation. Time-Series Analyses of U.S. Footwear Consumption, 1955-2002

Alexander Frenzel

Papers on Economics and Evolution from Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography

Abstract: Market growth is driven by product innovation. Beyond functional satiation the marginal utility of product performance and variety decreases. We argue that social comparisons underlying innovation diffusion results in consumer motivations for upward assimilation toward the behavior of better performing others, even beyond functional requirements. We distinguish consumption growth patterns driven by functional vs. assimilating motivations. These patterns are tested by time-series analyses of U.S. Footwear consumption between 1955 and 2002. The acceleration of market growth since the 1970s is statistically explained by changes in price, cross-price elasticity, and the increasing demand for innovations, according to our theoretical account of consumption motivations beyond functional satiation.

Keywords: Product Innovation; Innovation Diffusion; Consumption Growth; Social Comparison; Time-Series Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C22 D01 D12 L67 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2006-05
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
ftp://137.248.191.199/RePEc/esi/discussionpapers/2006-03.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 500 Failed to connect to FTP server 137.248.191.199: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:esi:evopap:2006-03

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Papers on Economics and Evolution from Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography Deutschhausstrasse 10, 35032 Marburg. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christoph Mengs ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).