The role of novelty in consumer curiosity by product type

Le rôle de la nouveauté dans la curiosité du consommateur selon le type de produit

Marie Beck ()
Additional contact information
Marie Beck: LUMEN - Lille University Management Lab - ULR 4999 - Université de Lille

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Purpose This study explores the joint effect of product novelty and experiential novelty on consumer-specific curiosity, particularly for high-involvement utilitarian and hedonic products. Unlike prior research that examined these novelties separately, this study investigates their synchronous adoption to understand how novelty management influences consumer curiosity. Design/methodology/approach Two experiments tested the effect of product and/or experiential novelty on consumer curiosity across product types (utilitarian or hedonic). A pilot study (N = 48) validated the hedonic vs utilitarian nature of the selected products. Study 1 (N = 322) examined novelty effects for a utilitarian product (refrigerator), while Study 2 (N = 707) tested the same effects for a hedonic product (photograph). Findings For utilitarian products, neither form of novelty alone significantly increases curiosity, but their combination creates a synergistic effect. For hedonic products, all types of novelty (product, experiential or both) enhance curiosity, confirming hedonic consumers' attraction to novelty-driven experiences. Research limitations/implications The study is limited to online shopping contexts. Future research should explore physical retail settings, longitudinal effects and moderators such as consumer innovativeness or sensation-seeking. Practical implications For utilitarian products, brands and retailers should combine product novelty with immersive experiential novelty (e.g. augmented reality). For hedonic products, brands and retailers could develop any types of novelty to elicit curiosity. There is therefore greater organizational flexibility in innovation projects for hedonic products. Originality/value This research refines theories of curiosity, innovation adoption and product categorisation, emphasising that novelty's effectiveness depends on context and product type (utilitarian or hedonic).

Keywords: utilitarian product; hedonic product; experiment; curiosity; novelty; novelty curiosity experiment hedonic product utilitarian product (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-12-18
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05420515v1
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, 2025, pp.1-19. ⟨10.1108/IJRDM-02-2025-0108⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-05420515v1/document (application/pdf)

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:hal:journl:hal-05420515

DOI: 10.1108/IJRDM-02-2025-0108

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().