Fit to Perfection? How Regulatory Fit Affects Consumer Adoption of Innovations

ABSTRACT

Understanding how regulatory focus shapes consumer responses is critical to explaining innovation adoption. Existing research has primarily examined chronic regulatory focus, product message‐related regulatory focus, and temporary regulatory focus in isolation, thereby neglecting their interplay and the role of regulatory fit in shaping adoption behavior for innovations. Addressing this gap, this research conducts four experimental studies. In the first two studies, we examine the impact of regulatory fit/non‐fit between consumers' chronic regulatory focus and the innovation's product message‐related regulatory focus on adoption behavior for incremental and radical innovations. Subsequently, in studies 3 and 4, we scrutinize whether inducing a temporary regulatory focus aligned with the product message‐related regulatory focus changes these effects. Results reveal that regulatory fit significantly heightens adoption intentions compared to non‐fit conditions, and that these effects are more pronounced for radical than for incremental innovations. Moreover, inducing an aligned temporary regulatory focus attenuates the negative effects of regulatory non‐fit but decreases adoption intentions in existing fit conditions rather than further strengthening existing fit effects. This research contributes new insights into the interplay of regulatory focus constructs, extends regulatory fit theory to the context of innovation adoption, and offers actionable implications for innovation communication strategies across different levels of product innovativeness.