European Journal of Innovation Management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale for measuring consumer doubt toward new products.

Design/methodology/approach – The scale was developed in several steps. A large pool of items to represent consumer doubt was generated. Experts reviewed the scale items for conciseness and clarity. An exploratory factor analysis to examine the unidimensionality, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of each construct was conducted. The model was then validated using partial least squares modeling. Finally, the scale and its form were validated, and potential response biases assessed. Data from three studies were used.

Findings – The results show that by focusing on reasons for deference, rather than acceptance, the scale yields new insight into innovation success and failure. The CDNP scale is a reliable and valid measurement instrument to assess consumer doubt toward new products.

Research limitations/implications – For researchers, the results show that only considering positive aspects on innovation adoption can lead to only a partial understanding of how innovation diffuses in the market.

Practical implications – By overcoming consumer doubt at early stages of innovation launch, companies could overcome problems related to innovation failure.

Originality/value – The literature on innovation adoption has almost exclusively focused on why innovations succeed by examining consumer acceptance of innovations. Yet, a potentially more serious issue that would need to be tackled is why innovations fail. This paper focuses on consumer doubt toward new products, i.e. a lack of conviction that a new product will fulfill its promises. Three studies show that the scale of consumer doubt is valid, and it provides new insights into innovation adoption.