Research: When Are Customers Willing to Try a New Technology?

"Marketers often assume that visibility and buzz tell them when consumers are ready to try a new technology. But these don't tell the full story. The real trigger for consumer adoption is attention-created when people suddenly have a bit of unexpected time."

"Guneet Kaur Nagpal is an assistant professor of marketing and GenAI teaching fellow at the Ivey Business School, Western University, Canada. Her research examines consumer search, time shocks, decision biases, pricing, channels, information breaches, and agentic AI, with a focus on causal empirical modeling."

"Amrita Mitra is a lecturer (assistant professor) in marketing at the University of Melbourne and holds a PhD in Marketing from Ivey Business School, Western University, Canada. Her research focuses on firm resilience and governance in franchising, alliances, and B2B sharing platforms."

Visibility and buzz often fail to indicate genuine consumer readiness to try new technologies. The primary adoption trigger is attention generated when consumers suddenly have unexpected free time. Such time shocks prompt search and experimentation, helping overcome inertia and decision biases. Adoption outcomes connect to pricing, channel strategies, information breaches, and agentic AI influences. Firms can capture transient attention windows through precise timing, targeted nudges, trial offers, and tailored messaging to convert brief availability into product trials. Understanding time-created attention enables more effective launch timing and promotional strategies.

Read at Harvard Business Review