When customization mode meets product innovativeness: How their match drives consumer purchase

This study explores how customization mode and product innovativeness jointly affect consumer purchase, extending prior research that separately examined these factors. Three experiments demonstrate that aligning customization mode with product innovativeness significantly impacts purchase intentions. This effect operates through processing fluency as a mediator and varies depending on product involvement. Specifically, incremental innovativeness coupled with M2C customization and radical innovativeness with C2M customization are shown to enhance purchase intentions, particularly among consumers with low product involvement. Notably, for service products, radical innovativeness exerts a stronger effect on purchase intentions, regardless whether C2M or M2C customization is employed. These results offer theoretical insights and practical implications for firms seeking to integrate innovation strategies with customization approaches effectively.