%0 Journal Article
%T Who Is Wary of User Design? The Role of Power
%A Neeru Paharia
%A Vanitha Swaminathan
%J Journal of Marketing
%@ 1547-7185
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0022242919830412
%X This article evaluates when a user-design approach is and is not effective in strengthening brand preference. It specifically delves into the role of power-distance beliefs in influencing preferences for user-designed products and brands. The authors demonstrate that low-power-distance consumers prefer user-designed products to company-designed products, whereas this effect is attenuated or reversed for high-power-distance consumers. The authors find process evidence that both feelings of empowerment and values of expertise differentially mediate brand preferences depending on power-distance beliefs, thus extending prior research findings. Field experiments conducted in the United States and cross-culturally (Austria and Guatemala) with FacebookĄ¯s advertising platform provide convergent evidence using country and political orientation as managerially accessible proxies. This research sheds light on when and why firms should be wary of user-design approaches, based on how power-distance beliefs drive consumersĄ¯ preferences
%K brand preferences
%K cocreation
%K cross-cultural
%K political orientation
%K power-distance beliefs
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022242919830412