Cognitive styles and personal involvement of market initiators for ‘healthy’ food brands: Implications for adoption theory

Abstract

The paper reports a test of hypotheses relating to consumers' innovative food purchasing and considers the implications of adaptive-innovative cognitive style, measured by the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI), for adoption theory and consumer research. An empirical investigation of female consumers' (N = 151) self-reported purchasing of 'healthy' food innovations examines the relationship between KAI and purchase volume. Although KAI was, as hypothesized, weakly related to consumer innovativeness, a majority of respondents had personality profiles distinctly different from those normally associated with innovativeness. A subset of these 'adaptors' who were highly involved in the product field accounted for the highest level of brand purchase. Implications for adoption theory of both innovative and adaptive cognitive styles coexisting among market initiators are discussed.