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The paper aims to examine whether (1) deviation of design (i.e. objective design newness) is distinct to consumers' perception of design newness (i.e. subjective design newness) and (2) subjective design newness rather than objective design newness evokes the emotion of interest and enhances product evaluation.

In total five sets of quasi-experiments were conducted on the natural manipulations of design newness. Specifically, the first four studies examine consumers' perception of design newness, feeling-of-interest and product evaluation toward old and new Apple's iOS (i.e., iPhone OS) icons when a new Apple's iOS is released. The fifth study generalized the findings to the new design of XiaoMi MiPhone.

Across five quasi-experimental studies, the authors found that (1) consumers do not necessarily perceive an objectively new design to be subjectively new; (2) subjective design newness, but not objective design newness, evokes interest and (3) interest, in turn, enhances product evaluation and behavioral intention toward an innovation.

The current finding extended the current literature on design newness by demonstrating that subjective (vs objective) design newness provides a more holistic account of consumers' interest and positive product evaluation toward the innovations.

The research showed that simply updating or altering the design of a product does not evoke consumers' perception of design newness and positive product evaluation. Instead, designer and managers must explore ways to evoke consumers' perception of novelty, complexity, unfamiliarity, atypicality and difference. Furthermore, the current finding demonstrated that subjective design newness can be used to evoke consumer interest and, therefore, result in positive purchase evaluation.

The current research is the first to examine (1) the difference between objective and subjective design newness, (2) the emotional response toward design newness and (3) the emotion of interest as a mediator that explain the strong relationship between design newness and positive product evaluation.

A successful process of design concept evaluation has positive influence on subsequent processes. This study aims to consider the evaluation information at multiple stages and the interaction among evaluators and improve the credibility of evaluation results.

This paper proposes a multi-stage approach for design concept evaluation based on complex network and bounded confidence. First, a network is constructed according to the evaluation data. Depending on the consensus degree of evaluation opinions, the number of evaluation rounds is determined. Then, bounded confidence rules are applied for the modification of preference information. Last, a planning function is constructed to calculate the weight of each stage and aggregate information at multiple evaluation stages.

The results indicate that the opinions of the evaluators tend to be consistent after multiple stages of interactive adjustment, and the ordering of design concept alternatives tends to be stable with the progress of the evaluation.

Updating preferences according to the bounded confidence rules, only the opinions within the trust threshold are considered. The attribute information of the node itself is inadequately considered.

This method addresses the need for considering the evaluation information at each stage and minimizes the impact of disagreements within the evaluation group on the evaluation results.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the individual and joint effects of the two design dimensions, form design and functional design, and moderating role of product innovativeness and technological sophistication in consumer’s evaluation of new products. Employing theoretical underpinnings from categorization theory, this paper investigates two major research questions. First, what type of form is more advantageous for a radically new product or an incrementally new product? Second, is there an individual difference in consumer evaluations to innovative products with various form designs?

One pre-test and three between-subject experiments were performed. In Experiments 1 and 2, a two-way between-group ANOVA analysis was performed to examine the effect of form and the degree of technological innovation on attitude toward the product using different product categories (car and camera). In Experiment 3, a three-way between-group ANOVA analysis was performed to explore the impact of form, the degree of technological innovation and consumer technological sophistication on attitude toward the product.

The results from the three experiments conducted demonstrate that, first, whereas the form design for incremental innovations must be closer to the incumbent products for favorable evaluations, less typical form is evaluated as good as a more typical form for radical innovations. Second, form design of an innovative product matters more to the technologically more sophisticated consumers (experts).

This paper extends the previous design literature and fills the gap of under-researched area by demonstrating that individual difference, technological sophistication, moderates the design effect on consumer evaluation of innovation; providing boundary condition of when the atypical form is not penalized in spite of consumer’s perceived learning cost; examining how the form and function interplay in “high-status product”; and demonstrating how to strengthen the reliability and validity by replicating the study. Managerially, this paper demonstrates that innovating firms can influence the perceived value of new products using form and functionality, and marketing managers who launch really new products have strategic freedom of choosing own product design.

This paper aims to investigate how product positioning affects the influence of product gender on consumers’ product evaluations.

Using experimental designs, this research investigates how hedonic versus functional consumption goals affect consumers’ choice between feminine and masculine products (Study 1) and how positioning products as either hedonic or functional influences consumers’ evaluations of feminine and masculine products (Studies 2 and 3).

When pursuing hedonic consumption goals, consumers are more likely to choose feminine (vs masculine) products, whereas when pursuing functional consumption goals, consumers are more likely to choose masculine (vs feminine) products. Further, consumers evaluate feminine products more favorably when the products are hedonically (vs functionally) positioned, whereas they evaluate masculine products more favorably when the products are functionally (vs hedonically) positioned. Perceptions of product credibility mediate this effect.

Connecting theories of gender identity, product positioning and congruity, this study extends previous literature by demonstrating that the effects of product gender are context-dependent.

Many companies use visual design cues (e.g. shape, color) to promote their products’ gender. The findings of this study suggest that companies promoting their products as feminine should highlight the products’ hedonic benefits, whereas companies promoting their products as masculine should highlight the products’ functional benefits.

Applying a conceptual congruity approach, this research is the first to demonstrate that the effects of product gender on consumers’ product evaluations depend on the product’s positioning.

Augmented reality (AR), an innovative interactive technology that can realize the synchronization and integration of virtual and reality, has been widely used in commodity displays and museum exhibitions. However, few studies have examined the effectiveness of AR-based product display in the context of historically cultural and creative product (HCCP) marketing. This study aims to focus on whether and how the application of AR technology to the HCCP display will influence consumers’ product evaluation.

This study uses three experiments to examine the impact of an AR-based product display on consumers’ evaluation of HCCPs. In experiments 1 and 2, the researchers compared the consumer’s evaluation of HCCPs under the AR-based product display condition and two other display conditions (i.e. 3D model display and photographic display) and examined the mediating role of perceived authenticity in the evaluation process. Experiment 3 tested the moderating effect of the availability of artistic detail information on weakening the negative impact of AR-based product display on the evaluation of HCCPs.

This study found that using AR-based displays harms consumers’ evaluation of HCCPs by impairing perceived authenticity. The spatial-temporal cues of real-time circumstances impede consumers’ processing of the historical attributes of the product. The dynamic AR-based display makes it hard for consumers to build the product’s connection with historical prototypes. Thus, consumers’ perception of the authenticity of HCCP is reduced. Providing artistic details during the presentation makes artistic attributes more prominent than historical attributes, allowing consumers to pay more attention to the sensory experience caused by the artistic design instead of the spatial-temporal cues of the product. At this point, the negative impact of AR-based product display on the evaluation of HCCPs will be attenuated.

First, this study shows the adverse effects of AR-based product displays in the field of HCCP marketing. AR-based product display degrades product evaluations when the displayed product has historical attributes. Second, this study extends the perceived authenticity theory to the technological experience context and establishes a theoretical connection with the AR literature. Third, this study explores the multiple characteristics of HCCPs. The historical attributes are the central attribute of HCCPs, leading consumers to perceive lower sense of authenticity due to the conflict with real-time spatiotemporal cues risen from the AR-based display. However, the artistic attributes, which are beyond the limitation of time and space, will attenuate this conflict when they become prominent.

This research aims to propose a methodology for a systematic, concurrent consideration of design for assembly (DFA) and disassembly guidelines and constraints for product remanufacturing. The methodology provides a holistic approach to design product from the remanufacturing perspective.

The proposed methodology incorporates parts’ integration assessment and evaluation of part complexity and accessibility taking into consideration both DFA and design-for-disassembly (DFD) guidelines and constraints. Metrics for accessibility and complexity in retrieving the remanufacturable cores from a product are evaluated to determine the best possible disassembly route considering the practical constraints which an operator might face during disassembly. As there could be more than one feasible disassembly route to retrieve a core during remanufacturing, a disassembly evaluation is conducted to determine the optimal path after combination of the parts of the assembly.

In remanufacturing, products need to be disassembled and re-assembled again. Conflicts exist between DFA and DFD. The proposed methodology serves to address these conflicting issues. The proposed methodology eases a designer’s effort systematically to incorporate both aspects, by incorporating practical consideration to determine an optimal disassembly sequence through integrating the handling aspect of assembly complexity assessment with the U-Rating disassembly effort indexing scheme to provide a quantitative evaluation of disassembly complexity, as disassembly still largely requires human effort.

Future research will explore methods to improve the user interface with features to determine feasible disassembly routes of a product automatically. This will relieve the effort of the product designer to a great extent.

This paper proposes a methodology for a systematic, concurrent consideration of DFA and DFD to provide a holistic approach to product design from the remanufacturing perspective to ease the designer’s task. Practical considerations will be made to determine the optimal disassembly route of the product. DFD will only be required to be applied to the selected disassembly route to minimize conflicts with DFA.

Advertising is one of the most important components of food marketing. However, there is uncertainty over the optimal means of convincing consumers to buy a product. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of advertising content comprising text (sensory, functional and symbolic messages) and pictures (product image) on food product evaluation.

Two online experiments investigating strawberry advertisements were performed. Study 1 incorporated only text, whereas study 2 investigated combinations of text and pictures. Analyses of variance were conducted to determine any significant differences among the three texts (sensory, functional and symbolic) and among the combinations of text and pictures.

Study 1 revealed no significant differences. All three texts were well received, which shows the relevance of all the product benefits – sensory, functional and symbolic – for food products. In contrast, study 2 identified significant differences. The data analysis indicated that advertising effectiveness increases with the complementarity of the text and picture. Notably, the combination of the product picture and symbolic text was scored the highest for effectiveness.

The findings provide new insights into advertising design that food firms can use to enhance consumer product evaluations in terms of expected taste, perceived experience and quality, overall attitude and purchase intention. Further, the results contribute to the research stream of food product benefits by highlighting the relevance of sensory, functional and symbolic design elements.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how consumers’ willingness to buy is influenced by two essential design elements: form and functional design. Form design refers to appearance and can be categorized as typical or non-typical. Function design relates to product features and can be the basis of whether a new product is perceived as a radically new product (RNP) vs an incrementally new product (INP). An interaction between form (typical vs non-typical) and function (RNP vs INP) was hypothesized and examined based on consumers’ knowledge of a product category and level of technological innovativeness.

Two between subject experiments were conducted in which two factors were manipulated (2×2 ANOVA): the degree of technological innovation (RNP vs INP) and form (more typical vs less typical).

Findings reveal that form design has a minimal impact on consumers’ evaluations of INPs, but less typical form design is preferred over typical form design for RNPs. Moreover, form design matters more to consumers who are technologically more innovative (vs less innovative) and more knowledgeable (vs less knowledgeable).

The managerial implications are multiple. Depending on the degree of the technological innovation, new design form can be strategically aligned to the function of a new product to increase perceived value – an effect observed among South Korean consumers that we anticipate will extend upon other cultures high in uncertainty avoidance.

This research will shed some light on an area of marketing that has been previously under-researched: form-based design in global innovation diffusion focusing on Asian countries and provide a more systematic approach to the empirical studies of form design issues in global marketing. This research extends the current design and innovation literature by examining the two dimensional types of design (visceral form and functionality) and potential moderators: degree of product innovation (RNP vs INP), consumer innovativeness, and consumer knowledge.

This study was designed to extend knowledge of cognitive processing of country of origin cues by refining the concept of country image and investigating its role in product evaluations.

Data were collected from residents of a large North American metropolitan. A total of 436 usable questionnaires were returned. Data analysis was conducted using the EQS structural equation modeling software

We found that country image is a three‐dimensional concept consisting of cognitive, affective, and conative components. We modeled the relationships among country image, product beliefs, and product evaluations, and found that country image and product beliefs affect product evaluations simultaneously regardless of consumers' level of familiarity with a country's products. Findings also indicated that the structure of country image influences product evaluations both directly and indirectly through product beliefs. Consistent with affect transfer theory, the results showed that when a country's image has a strong affective component, its direct influence on product evaluations is stronger than its influence on product beliefs. Alternatively, when a country's image has a strong cognitive component, its direct influence on product evaluations was smaller than its influence on product beliefs.

One limitation pertains to the relatively poor psychometric properties of some items. Future research will benefit from further improvements in the measures of country image that tap into the various facets of the construct.

The major contributions of the study consist of the full operationalization of country image as a three‐dimensional concept, and the findings on the impact of country image structure on consumers' evaluation processes.

The actual success or failure of a product is measurable partially in terms of the commercial success of the organization producing it. Addresses how to estimate that success at the concept stage of the design process, prior to detailed design, when there is not yet a physical artefact, and no definite knowledge of how the market will respond to it, but simply some representation of it, for example, design drawings and 3‐D models. Describes a method for approaching this problem by establishing attributes (in “user terms”) which a product must have to enable it to achieve success. Presents an example of a toothbrush, determines the measurable attributes required from this product and describes methods for their evaluation.