Successful Innovation: A Field Guide to the Psychology of Change
The word “innovation” gets thrown around a lot, often in regard to the development of new products or services. But what predicts how people will respond to new things or ideas? And what can we do to encourage people to accept and adopt the new?
These are complex issues, and they have been the subject of extensive research over the last several decades. In fact, the vast literature of innovation research can be a little overwhelming.
That’s where NC State’s Stacy Wood comes in.
An expert in the field of consumer psychology, Wood leads the Consumer Innovation Consortium and is the Langdon Distinguished Professor of Business Management in NC State’s Poole College of Management. As one of the top scholars studying consumers and innovation, she was invited by the Journal of Consumer Research to write an overview of the literature on consumers and innovation. “The Psychology of Innovation” is a concise and readable guide to the innovation literature that addresses a host of fundamental questions, including:
- How fast will people adopt a new product or practice?
- When are people more positive about innovative products or services?
- Can we influence people to be more innovative?
- How have the internet, social networks and technology influenced consumer behavior in regard to innovation?
“The Psychology of Innovation” is published online in a Journal of Consumer Research research curation post (Summer 2016). In her summary, Wood notes five major themes of consumer-centric innovation that have emerged in the past four decades and references related research for those seeking to learn how to promote innovation and influence people to accept or adopt new things…from products to practices and beyond. As part of a special initiative to share knowledge, this information is open access with free access to five cited papers.
