When institutional logics collide: The influence of subjective knowledge on novel products related behavioural intentions while intra-and-inter-institutional logics are in conflict or synchronised

Abstract

Consumers do not make decisions in isolation; their decision-making is related to a broader belief system in society. Particularly in the case of novel products, consumers become more receptive to such social signals due to the lack of understanding of such products in the market owing to their novelty. Despite the extensive research highlighting the potential of institutional logics - the set of material practices and symbolic systems such as beliefs, norms and values that give meaning to consumer decision-making - the role of institutional logics in defining consumers’ goals, attitudes and actions remains largely unaddressed in marketing research. Through the lens of institutional logics, this thesis attempts to explain the complexity of novel product consumption, particularly consumption that is driven by virtual communities and corporations that enable consumers to understand such products. In particular, this thesis seeks answers to the following questions: how consumers form their behavioural intentions towards novel products when they confront positively or negatively synchronised logics around novel products within virtual communities; what happens when consumers encounter conflicting logics regarding such products within virtual communities; what happens when they face these logic dynamics of virtual communities and corporations simultaneously; and how the interaction between virtual communities and corporations affects consumer behavioural intention towards novel products. Additionally, this thesis proposes consumer subjective knowledge as a remedy for novel product adoption. The relationship between subjective knowledge and interplay of institutional logic dynamics (synchronicity and conflict) is explored with choice confidence and justifiability. Through four online experiments with 803 participants, following the positivism philosophy, this thesis identifies how the activation of virtual community logics and interaction between virtual community and corporation logics moderates the effect of subjective knowledge on their behavioural intentions towards novel products. While participants are influenced by institutional logics, the direction of logics is not connected with the behaviour, which contradicts institutional theorists’ arguments suggesting the interdependence of consumers, virtual communities and corporations.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Sukyoung Kang: orcid.org/0000-0002-0505-5612

ORCID for Paurav Shukla: orcid.org/0000-0003-1957-8622

ORCID for Mee Chi So: orcid.org/0000-0002-8507-4222

Catalogue record

Export record