THE INFLUENCE OF EXTERIOR DESIGN ATTRIBUTES ON CONSUMER PREFERENCE FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES By QUINN E. BUTTON Bachelor of Science in Textiles & Clothing Design, Business Marketing & Management University of California, Davis Davis, California 2009 Master of Science in Entrepreneurship Oklahoma State University Stillwater, Oklahoma 2016 Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY July, 2019 THE INFLUENCE OF EXTERIOR DESIGN ATTRIBUTES ON CONSUMER PREFERENCE FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES Dissertation Approval: Dr. Greg Clare _______________________________________________ Dissertation Advisor Dr. Gina Peek ________________________________________________ Dr. Clara Bae ________________________________________________ Dr. Isaac Washburn _________________________________________________ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you Dr. Clare for all of your incredible support and mentorship throughout this doctoral journey. You have been the best mentor I could have ever asked for—I am grateful to have worked with you for the past three years, and honored to have had you as my advisor. I truly would not have been able to accomplish this without you. Thank you for everything. Thank you also to my husband, my best friend, my rock, my everything—Dr. Jonathon Button. Just a couple of months ago, we surprised our friends and family with a secret wedding and promised each other forever the same weekend we graduated. We did it our way and we always will because we found ourselves when we found each other. Thank you for your unwavering support and belief in me; thank you for being everything I could ever have imagined and more. We did this together, like we always have, as a team—together we can accomplish anything. Our insatiable curiosity for the world and passion to make the world a better place in everything we do, makes me very excited for what is next for us. I love you with all of my heart. Acknowledgements reflect the views of the author and are not endorsed by committee members or Oklahoma State University. iii Name: QUINN ELISE BUTTON Date of Degree: July, 2019 Title of Study: THE INFLUENCE OF EXTERIOR DESIGN ATTRIBUTES ON CONSUMER PREFERENCE FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES Major Field: HUMAN SCIENCES Abstract: What is the relationship between a product’s design and acceptance of the product? We examine consumer preferences relative to the fast changing automotive industry to understand how the various physical design elements of new car models, including electric vehicles, influence consumer vehicle preference. This research explores product design perceptions and aims to understand specific attributes of the visual form that underlie consumer interpretations of products. Eye tracking methods and measurements were employed to empirically examine if attention can predict consumer judgements and behavioral outcomes. Study 1 investigated consumer level a priori variables—including prototypicality, processing fluency, and information entropy—which were hypothesized to influence consumer aesthetic liking. In Study 2, car-level attributes were specifically looked at to see if the same variables relative to a cars design influenced annual car sales. Variables in these studies were measured with both conventional eye tracking measurements and newly established composite metrics to analyze the scan paths of participants and understand how the visual entropy of an object influences consumer preferences. Findings reveal the importance of the grille as a feature that consumers rely on to recognize and make judgements about a vehicle’s design. This study also confirms Mandler’s hypothesis (1989) that a moderate level of prototypicality is preferred by consumers when evaluating vehicles, suggesting that a vehicle’s design elements should be moderately unique so that they are memorable, while also consistent relative to the product category’s typicality to alleviate confusion. The research findings are relevant to both designers and marketing executives as they attempt to align new model designs with the expectations of consumers while also trying to stand out amongst competitors in a saturated market. Understanding which design features consumers use to make evaluations during the purchasing process is an important first step before launching a new vehicle model to the market. The measures and methods in this study offer useful measures for marketing and design practitioners if design enhancement is of interest. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 1 Research Question........................................................................................................... 1 Definitions ...................................................................................................................... 5 Motivation For Study .................................................................................................... 10 Expected Contributions to the Literature ....................................................................... 13 Chapter Summary ......................................................................................................... 14 II. LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................................... 15 Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................. 15 Empirical Literature Review ......................................................................................... 28 Conclusions Based on Theoretical and Empirical Literature .......................................... 37 Hypotheses Drawn from Theory and Empirical Literature ............................................. 41 Hypothesis 1: Examining prototypicality and fluency. ....................................... 41 Hypothesis 2: Examining prototypicality and entropy. ....................................... 43 Hypothesis 3: Examining fluency and consumer preference. .............................. 47 Hypothesis 4: Examining entropy and consumer preference............................... 49 III. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................. 53 v Data Collection ............................................................................................................. 53 Participants. ....................................................................................................... 53 Stimuli. .............................................................................................................. 55 Experiment procedure. ....................................................................................... 57 Measures ....................................................................................................................... 59 Study 1: Participant-level measures. .................................................................. 59 Study 2: Car-level measures. ............................................................................. 63 IV. RESULTS & ANALYSES ................................................................................................. 66 Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 66 Study 1: Participant-level analysis. .................................................................... 68 Study 2: Car-level analysis. ............................................................................... 69 Calculating prototypicality. ................................................................................ 71 Calculating T50. ................................................................................................. 72 Calculating scan path entropy. ........................................................................... 73 Results .......................................................................................................................... 84 Study 1: Participant-level results. ....................................................................... 84 Study 2: Car-level results. .................................................................................. 88 Eye tracking results. .......................................................................................... 93 Composite metrics results. ............................................................................... 108 Survey response results. ................................................................................... 114 vi V. DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION ...................................................................................... 116 Theoretical Contributions ............................................................................................ 116 Limitations & Future Research .................................................................................... 128 Practical Implications .................................................................................................. 130 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 132 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................... 134 APPENDICIES .....................................................................................................................