How innovativeness relates to social representation of new foods and to the willingness to try and use such foods q A. Huotilainen a, * , A.-M. Pirttila ¨ -backman b , H. Tuorila a a Department of Food Technology, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 66, 00014 Helsinki, FIN-00014, Finlandb Department of Social Psychology, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 54, 00014 Helsinki, FIN-00014, FinlandReceived 24 June 2004; received in revised form 11 April 2005; accepted 12 April 2005 Available online 13 June 2005 Abstract The relationship between domain specific innovativeness scale (DSI) and social representation (SR) components of new foods (suspicion of new foods; adherence to natural food; adherence to technology; eating as an enjoyment; eating as a necessity) was explored in a survey with Finnish consumers ( N= 1156). Both DSI and SR were used to predict willingness to try/use new foods, categorized into six subgroups of which three were functional (cereal-based and otherwise functional foods; functional drinks), and the remaining three categories were modified dairy products, organic products, and energy drinks. Enjoyment and low suspicion predicted 27% of variation in DSI, which, in turn, predicted up to 6% of willingness to try categories of new foods, excluding organic products. When added to the predictive model, SR components increased the prediction of all food categories, particularly func- tional cereal-based and organic products (up to 20.4%). Thus, DSI predicted willingness to try new foods to some extent, but SR components, most of all low suspicion of new foods and adherence to natural food, significantly improved the prediction. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: New foods; Innovat ors; Social represen tations 1. Introduction Inspired by both theoretical and marketing interests, diffusion of innovations has been extensively studied in the past forty years (e.g., Sa ¨ a ¨ ks ja ¨ rvi, 2003 ). Innovative consumers represent a key market segment, playing an essential role in the success of a new product, as they legitimize the novel product to other consumers (Gold- smit h & Fly nn, 1992). As inn ovations are ess ent iall y novelty bound, connection between innovation research and theory of soc ial repres ent atio ns (e.g ., Moscovici, 1981) is apparent. In encountering the novel, social rep- resenta tions have a key role, as the se soc iall y shared everyday ‘‘theories’’ of novelty enable people to come to terms with the new and the unknown ( Moscovici, 1981). The outlines of innovation diffusion theory are well establi shed. Followin g Roger s infl uential work from the 196 0 s, inn ovation lite rature has lar gel y rel ied on adopti on timing mea surement, whic h defines innova - tiveness as the degree to which an individual is relatively prior in adopti ng an innovation than others ( Rogers, 1983). Based on the differences in adoption timing, Rog- ers develo ped the frequ ently mentioned adopter categ o- ries: innovators, early adopters, early majority, and late majority. A great deal of research has been devoted to explor ing person al charac teristic s relate d to these adop- ter categories, but results have been rather consistent in showing that per sonal cha rac teri stic s affe ct adopti on 0950-3293/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2005.04.005 q Parts of this article were presented at a sense of identity—European conf eren ce on sensory science of food and beve rage s, Flor ence, September 26–29, 2004, as an oral presentation. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +358 9 191 58293; fax: +358 9 191 58460. E-mail address : anna.huotilainen@helsinki.fi (A. Huotilainen). www.elsevier.com/locate/foodqual Food Quality and Preference 17 (2006) 353–361
