Are innovative consumers prone to imitation perception? Developing a constructivist innovativeness model of imitation perception

Global firms desire to see that consumers perceive their firm and brands innovative. Firms may claim that they are innovative and may blame their competitor(s) to be imitative. But how do innovative consumers see this claim? Are they sensitive to imitation? Responding to this gap, the on-going present study investigates whether and how consumer innovativeness influences imitation perception and subsequently innovativeness perception of the firm. The present study particularly intends to theorize the innovativeness perspective of imitation perception. The study used a two-route model and a survey with 334 respondents regarding two competing brands. Comparing the home and foreign brands, the results suggests that innovativeness influences imitation perception in the context of home brand users. Future study seeks to use a constructivist, two-route model of information processing and experiential.