Measuring consumer innovativeness

Abstract

The development of a self-report scale to measure domain specific consumer innovativeness is described. A major problem faced by researchers interested in the diffusion of innovations has been the difficulty in measuring the innovativeness construct in a reliable and valid way. Several operationalizations have been proposed and are commonly used, yet none has received substantial evidence supporting its reliability and validity. A series of six studies describes the development and evaluation of a six-item, self-report scale to measure innovativeness within a specific domain of interest familiar to the consumer. The scale is shown to be easy to administer, highly reliable and valid, and adaptable across domains.