Understanding product attachment and expected product lifetime by extending Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with product personalization and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT)

Identifying and understanding consumers is fundamental, especially for quickly spreading new products. In recent years, the popularity of digital gadgets has sky rocketed; however, there has also been a growing tendency of relative obsolescence—replacement of a product regardless of the demise of its perfect functioning. Therefore, a question is raised concerning how the Product Attachment between a user and product can be formed and how this relationship can influence the Expected Product Lifetime, particularly in earlier adopters. Innovation of Diffusion Theory (IDT) is employed to categorized adopters. Among five adopter groups—innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards—the first two groups are a key to accelerating diffusion and spreading into the mainstream market.;This dissertation seeks to expand our understanding of consumer behavior in the relationship between Product Attachment and Expected Product Lifetime and also the role of Product Personalization in shaping Product Attachment using Technology Acceptance Theory (TAM). These factors were examined as they relate to media tablet ownership, which reached 34% penetration in May of 2013 (Zickuhr, 2013). According to Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT), this includes three categories of adoption: innovators, early adopters, and the first half of early majority adopters. An online survey of tablet users (N=212) was conducted and also group comparisons between Early Adopter (innovator and early adopter, n=81) and Early Majority 2 (n=131) were investigated to define difference in early IDT categories. Further, an association between Product Attachment and Expected Product Lifetime was explored.;Findings indicate that earlier adopters feel more Product Attachment when a product is more useful and enjoyable; however, ease of use is not significant factor. The causal direction from Product Attachment to Product Personalization yields a bigger bigger explanatory power than does the opposite direction—Product Personalization to Product Attachment—with significance on both directions. In group comparison, Perceived Ease of Use is found as a key player. Early Adopter shows a significant negative impact on Product Attachment when a product is found to be exceedingly easy to use; whereas, Early Majority presents no significance. Another negative association is found between Product Attachment and Expected Product Lifetime in both groups.;This study contributes to the limited literature on Product Attachment by expanding TAM on how Product Attachment can be formed while considering Product Personalization and how Product Attachment predicts Expected Product Lifetime. In addition, this study also helps clarify the characteristic of high-tech product earlier adopters. Additional research is recommended to better and clear understanding on the different characteristics in each adopter group by including all adopter categories concerning Product Personalization.