Question

1) Think about one of your recent adoptions of a new product/service. It could be a product such as a new cell phone, or it could be a service such as a new restaurant, or it could be joining a new community, etc. Describe the factors that influence your adoption behavior, i.e. why you become interested in this new product/service, and the reasons that you decide to try it. Do you think the above factors, such as network externalities, herding behaviors, information spillovers etc. play a role in your decision making?

2) Again, think about one of your recent adoptions of a new product/service. Discuss whether this product/service has the five characteristics mentioned in Chapter 9. They are relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, divisibility and communicability (P152). Please describe all these five attributes of the focal product/service in details.

Answer 1

1.

I recently purchased a cell phone and switched from Android phones to an Apple iPhone. This can be considered as a major step because this is my first Apple cell phone. Now, there are several factors that influenced my purchase decision. In general, they are

• I realized that Android phones tend to crash/freeze more often than iPhone
• The apps and software for Apple phone appears to be more refined
• The build quality feels premium and has a certain prestige value
• The user interface is completely simple and straight forward
• These are the general reasons why I purchased an Apple phone. However, if we consider the factor the key factors were
• Convenience and ease of use
• Hardware quality
• Reliability of the system

When it comes to other factors I feel the herding behavior obviously had a certain impact on my purchase decision. However, considering the purchase criteria that I was looking at, and the available alternatives, my decision to purchase Apple seemed to be correct. I used a non-compensatory decision rule to arrive at my purchase decision.

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