Changing Preferences Toward Autonomous Products: Exploring the Roles of Involvement and Temporal Distance to Purchase

Abstract Recent advancements in technology have catalyzed product automation across various domains. Against this backdrop, comprehending consumer responses to autonomous products has emerged as a pivotal concern for businesses. Nonetheless, extant research inadequately investigates how the level of involvement influences preferences for autonomous products and how this influence fluctuates with the temporal distance to purchase. This study addresses this gap in knowledge by examining findings pertaining to involvement, the need for control, and construal level theory. A questionnaire survey encompassing 3,039 participants yielded the following insights. First, in scenarios in which purchases are made in the distant future, high-involvement consumers have a more favorable overall evaluation toward conventional products, whereas low-involvement consumers have a stronger preference toward autonomous products. Second, in scenarios in which purchases are imminent, high-involvement consumers demonstrate greater purchase intentions toward conventional products, whereas low-involvement consumers demonstrate comparable purchase intentions toward both autonomous and conventional products. These findings, elucidating consumer adoption patterns of autonomous products, offer pragmatic implications for companies’ product strategies, although caution should be exercised in generalizing the results, as the only product examined in the study was automobiles.