The Effects of Consumers Internal Knowledge Transfer on the Adoption of New Products

This study investigates consumers adoption processes of innovative new products. Specifically, the study focuses on the effects of prior knowledge related to new products in the formation of attitudes. The major findings show that consumers with more prior knowledge (the expert consumers) understand new products better. In turn, this high level of understanding level leads to the high expectation level of product performance. Consumers who expect high performance also appear to possess more favorable attitudes toward new products. This study also revealed that consumers with much prior knowledge mainly recognize new products through function-based (relational) mapping from existing products. On the other hand, novices, consumers who have less prior knowledge, recognize new products through appearance-based mapping from existing products. The results imply that consumers prior knowledge and internal knowledge transfer influence significantly the adoption of new products and that marketers should plan and implement marketing communication to derive positive knowledge transfer