Examining post-purchase consumer responses to product automation.

Automation is increasingly being introduced into a variety of consumer products, ranging from vacuum cleaners to autonomous vehicles. While automation provides convenience and efficiency benefits consumers value, related evidence suggests it can also undermine post-purchase consumer product responses of importance to managers (e.g., brand loyalty). Using insights derived from Amazon customer reviews, a survey of product owners, a virtual reality lab, and two vignette experiments, we formally explore this possibility and find that automation is indeed a double-edged sword. That is, we uncover that automation has undesirable effects on post-purchase outcomes because it interferes with psychological ownership formation. We also find that, depending on consumer identity motives (e.g., task-related vs. technology-related) and product design affordances (e.g., a remote access feature), this effect can be strengthened, weakened, or even reversed. Our findings offer managers needed guidance on how to counter automation's dark side through identity-based targeting and product design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]