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Revising the myth of gay consumer innovativeness

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  • Vandecasteele, Bert
  • Geuens, Maggie

Abstract

Non-academic literature often refers to gay people as innovators, but academic evidence is lacking. To test whether gays and heterosexuals differ in innate and realized innovativeness, and whether the relationships between the variables in an innovativeness model differ for both groups, 833 Flemish respondents from a homosexual-tolerant region (i.e., Flanders) filled out a questionnaire that was posted on forums and newsgroups targeted at either a general or a homosexual population. MANOVA results reveal an important interaction effect between gender and sexual orientation. The gay men in the study are slightly more innovative than the heterosexual men, but the opposite holds true for the gay and heterosexual women. The relations between the constructs in the innovativeness model do not differ for the different groups.

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  • Vandecasteele, Bert & Geuens, Maggie, 2009. "Revising the myth of gay consumer innovativeness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 134-144, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:62:y:2009:i:1:p:134-144
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    Cited by:

    1. Bartels, Jos & Reinders, Machiel J., 2011. "Consumer innovativeness and its correlates: A propositional inventory for future research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(6), pages 601-609, June.
    2. Ro, Heejung & Olson, Eric D., 2014. "The effects of social justice and stigma-consciousness on gay customers' service recovery evaluation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 1162-1169.
    3. Eisend, Martin & Hermann, Erik, 2020. "Sexual orientation and consumption: Why and when do homosexuals and heterosexuals consume differently?," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 678-696.
    4. B. Vandecasteele & M. Geuens, 2008. "Motivated Consumer Innovativeness: Concept and Measurement," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 08/532, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    5. Harrison, Robert L., 2013. "Using mixed methods designs in the Journal of Business Research, 1990–2010," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(11), pages 2153-2162.
    6. Patrick Spieth & Sabrina Schneider, 2016. "Business model innovativeness: designing a formative measure for business model innovation," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 86(6), pages 671-696, August.
    7. B. Vandecasteele & M. Geuens, 2009. "Motivated Consumer Innovativeness: Validation and Moderation," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 09/550, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    8. Vandecasteele, Bert & Geuens, Maggie, 2010. "Motivated Consumer Innovativeness: Concept, measurement, and validation," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 308-318.

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