Something underneath? Using a within-subjects design to examine schema congruity theory at an individual level

Previous research has shown that perceived incongruity affects product evaluations in an inverted U shape. However, it remains unclear whether this relation also occurs at individual levels with continuous incongruity measures, and for products with repurposed materials. Five within-subjects studies...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of retailing and consumer services Vol. 68; p. 102994
Main Authors Gao, Xin, De Hooge, Ilona E., Fischer, Arnout R.H.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2022
Subjects
New product development
Product evaluation
Repurposed materials
Schema congruity theory
New product development
Repurposed materials
Schema congruity theory
Product evaluation
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN0969-6989
1873-1384
DOI10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.102994

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Summary:Previous research has shown that perceived incongruity affects product evaluations in an inverted U shape. However, it remains unclear whether this relation also occurs at individual levels with continuous incongruity measures, and for products with repurposed materials. Five within-subjects studies do not show the inverted U relation across all participants. Instead, consumer subgroups show a monotonic relation: higher congruity leads to higher product evaluations. This aligns with processing fluency theory. Additionally, we demonstrate that the degree of processing from raw to end materials and the extent to which materials fulfil product functions mediate the effect of repurposed materials on perceived incongruity.
ISSN:0969-6989
1873-1384
DOI:10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.102994