A Study of Consumer Innovativeness and Motivations behind Adoption of Innovation

The purpose of this article is to study consumer innovativeness and to explore various consumer motivations behind adoption of innovation. Consumers may have different motivations behind adoption of an innovation. Most of the researchers researched different categories of consumer needs which are categorized into three or four main groups: (1) functional needs, the motivations to get functional benefits from the new product and to create more utility, (2) hedonic needs, the motivations to have fun, pleasure, variation etc. (3) social needs, the need for status, prestige and symbolism, uniqueness etc. and (4) cognitive needs, the need for curiosity and a desire for knowledge. This study explores in detail the various motivational drivers for participating in adoption of innovation process. The aim of this paper therefore is to explore user characteristics and motivations that contribute to adoption of innovation process. In-depth interviews were conducted from 20 consumers, selected through convenience sampling, who recently adopted at least one innovation. The main findings of our study indicate that four types of motivations underlie consumer innovativeness and adoption of innovation. These motivations are functional, hedonic, cognitive and social. Functional motivated innovativeness is at the top for adoption of innovations. Second most important reason behind adoption of innovation is hedonic.