본 연구에서는 영상통화가 대중화되지 못하고 있는 현상에 주목하여 영상통화에 대한 혁신저항의 영향요인을 규명하고자 하였다. 본 연구에서는 혁신저항의 주요한 영향요인으로 지각된 위험에 초점을 맞추 었으며, 다차원적인 접근법을 통해 지각된 위험의 하위차원이 혁신저항에 미치는 차별적 영향을 규명하고자 하였다. 구체적으로, 본 연구에서는 지각된 위험을 경제적 위험, 사회적 위험, 성능적 위험, 기술적 위험, 사생활 위험으로 분류하였으며, 이러한 지각된 위험의 하위 차원 중 사회적 위험, 성능적 위험, 사생활 위험이 영상통화에 대한 혁신저항에 유의한 영향을 미침을 밝혔다. 또한 캐즘이론을 바탕으로 지각된 위험이 혁신저항에 미치는 영향을 조절하는 변수들을 제안하고자 하였다. 캐즘(Chasm)이란 혁신자들이 주를 이루는 초기시장과 일반 대중이 주를 이루는 주류 시장 사이에 협곡과도 같은 간극이 존재함을 의미하며, 혁신제품이 일반 대중에게 확산되지 못하고 정체되는 현상을 설명한다. 캐즘이론에서는 혁신자와 일반 대중 사이의 커뮤니케이션 부재와 혁신 기술의 차별화 가치 부재가 캐즘의 주요한 원인이라고 하였다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 이러한 주장을 근간으로 영상통화의 혁신저항에 영향을 미치는 조절변수를 제안하였다. 구체적으로, 본 연구에서는 영상통화에 대한 구전과 지각된 유용성을 조절변수로 제안하였으며, 사회적 위험, 성능적 위험, 사생활 위험의 영향력이 구전과 지각된 유용성에 의해 완화될 수 있음을 규명하였다. 본 연구는 혁신의 확산과 수용에만 초점을 맞추고 있는 기존 연구들과는 달리 혁신저항에 초점을 맞추었으며, 영상통화라는 혁신적 기술에 대한 혁신저항의 영향요인과 조절요인을 실증하였다. 이러한 시도는 이론적으로는 혁신과 관련된 연구의 범위를 확장하였으며, 실무적으로는 영상통화의 대중화를 위한 전략적 시사점을 제공하였다.
Although firms try to adopt innovation delivering added value for consumers, most firms are faced with a large number of innovation failures. Many consumers feel psychological resistance to innovations and refuse to adopt them. Although it can be assumed that innovation resistance has an negative effect on consumers’ intention to adopt innovations, most researchers have verified adoption process and neglected the impact of innovation resistance on innovation diffusion. Innovation resistance is not the opposite of adoption and innovation adoption begins only after this resistance has been overcome. Therefore, it is crucial to understand consumers’ psychological resistance to find out why innovation diffusion often fails.
This study focuses on consumers’ resistance to innovation and aims to verify the factors affecting consumer resistance to innovation from adopting mobile video telephony service. The author suggests that consumers’ risk perceptions in mobile video telephony service have an impact on innovation resistance. Specifically, the author incorporates perceived risk as a key antecedent of innovation resistance and expands this construct into five facets including financial, social, performance, technological, and privacy risk. Also, the author suggests word-of-mouth and perceived usefulness moderate the impact of perceived risk on innovation resistance based on chasm theory. The research model postulates the following 3 hypotheses about relationships between four constructs: (H1) Perceived risk has a positive effect on innovation resistance; (H2) Word-of-mouth moderates the impact of perceived risk on innovation resistance; (H3) Perceived usefulness moderates the impact of perceived risk on innovation resistance.
To test the hypotheses, we recruited a sample of 180 undergraduate students. The questionnaire was developed based on previous researches. It was composed of five facets of perceived risk, perceived usefulness, word-of-mouth, and innovation resistance. We also asked questions about their demographic background including gender and age. Data collection was implemented by an online research firm and students answered questions online. The data was analyzed by reliability test, factor analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis using SPSS.
Result indicates that social, performance, and privacy risk are salient antecedents to innovation resistance. In addition, the author verifies that word-of-mouth and perceived usefulness of mobile video telephony service moderate the effect of risk perception on innovation resistance. Specifically, the results indicate that word-of-mouth and perceived usefulness moderate the impact of social risk and privacy risk.
<Table 1> Result of AnalysisHypotheses Suggestion Result H1-1 financial risk→innovation resistance not supported H1-2 social risk→innovation resistance supported H1-3 performance risk→innovation resistance supported H1-4 technological risk→innovation resistance not supported H1-5 privacy risk→innovation resistance supported H2 moderating effect of word-of-mouth partially supported H3 moderating effect of perceived usefulness partially supportedThis research has some important implications. Theoretically, this research verifies the factors affecting consumers’ psychological resistance to innovation focusing on the perceived risk of mobile video telephony service. The result of this research expands the scope of innovation research and suggests strategic implications for marketing practitioners.