IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v196y2025ics0148296325002486.html

Does faster always mean better? The negative marketing consequences of fast product upgrade frequency

Author

Listed:
  • Liu, Wumei
  • Wang, Manxin
  • He, Jingjing

Abstract

An increasing body of research investigates what motivates consumers to choose upgraded products. However, little is known about how product upgrade frequency affects consumer perception of the upgraded product and the company behind it. This research examines the effect of product upgrade frequency on consumers’ environmental friendliness perception of the product and the downstream corporate social responsibility (CSR) perception of the company. Through one secondary data study and five experiments, we show that fast (vs. slow) product upgrade frequency reduces consumers’ environmental friendliness perception of the product, which consequently reduces consumers’ CSR perception of the company. Additionally, we find that the negative effect of fast (vs. slow) upgrade frequency on CSR perception is amplified (attenuated) when the attributes being upgraded are the periphery ones (central ones).

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Wumei & Wang, Manxin & He, Jingjing, 2025. "Does faster always mean better? The negative marketing consequences of fast product upgrade frequency," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:196:y:2025:i:c:s0148296325002486
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115425
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296325002486
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115425?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heinkel, Robert & Kraus, Alan & Zechner, Josef, 2001. "The Effect of Green Investment on Corporate Behavior," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(4), pages 431-449, December.
    2. David Gadenne & Jessica Kennedy & Catherine McKeiver, 2009. "An Empirical Study of Environmental Awareness and Practices in SMEs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 84(1), pages 45-63, January.
    3. Lys, Thomas & Naughton, James P. & Wang, Clare, 2015. "Signaling through corporate accountability reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 56-72.
    4. Hubert Gatignon & Michael L. Tushman & Wendy Smith & Philip Anderson, 2002. "A Structural Approach to Assessing Innovation: Construct Development of Innovation Locus, Type, and Characteristics," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(9), pages 1103-1122, September.
    5. Haozhe (Michael) Song & Gunnar Rimmel, 2021. "Heterogeneity in CSR activities: is CSR investment monotonically associated with earnings quality?," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 1-29, January.
    6. Robert J. Meyer & Shenghui Zhao & Jin K. Han, 2008. "Biases in Valuation vs. Usage of Innovative Product Features," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(6), pages 1083-1096, 11-12.
    7. Alexandria M. Gain & Leonard V. Coote & André Bonfrer, 2024. "Conceptualising and measuring consumer perceptions of brand wastefulness," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 31(6), pages 557-575, November.
    8. Joseph Guiltinan, 2009. "Creative Destruction and Destructive Creations: Environmental Ethics and Planned Obsolescence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 89(1), pages 19-28, May.
    9. Hubert, Marco & Florack, Arnd & Gattringer, Rafael & Eberhardt, Tim & Enkel, Ellen & Kenning, Peter, 2017. "Flag up! – Flagship products as important drivers of perceived brand innovativeness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 154-163.
    10. Paul R. Portney, 2008. "The (Not So) New Corporate Social Responsibility: An Empirical Perspective," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 2(2), pages 261-275, Summer.
    11. Liu, Hsin-Hsien, 2013. "How promotional frames affect upgrade intentions," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 237-248.
    12. Ravi Bapna & Akhmed Umyarov, 2015. "Do Your Online Friends Make You Pay? A Randomized Field Experiment on Peer Influence in Online Social Networks," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(8), pages 1902-1920, August.
    13. Jungkeun Kim, 2017. "The ownership distance effect: the impact of traces left by previous owners on the evaluation of used goods," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 591-605, December.
    14. Jiong Sun & Jinhong Xie & Tao Chen & Fei Li & Gao Wang, 2022. "Managing Reference‐Group Effects in Sequential Product Upgrades," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(2), pages 442-456, February.
    15. George E. Newman & Margarita Gorlin & Ravi Dhar, 2014. "When Going Green Backfires: How Firm Intentions Shape the Evaluation of Socially Beneficial Product Enhancements," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(3), pages 823-839.
    16. Okada, Erica Mina, 2001. "Trade-Ins, Mental Accounting, and Product Replacement Decisions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 27(4), pages 433-446, March.
    17. Huh, Young Eun & Kim, Sang-Hoon, 2008. "Do early adopters upgrade early? Role of post-adoption behavior in the purchase of next-generation products," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 40-46, January.
    18. Baskentli, Sara & Sen, Sankar & Du, Shuili & Bhattacharya, C.B., 2019. "Consumer reactions to corporate social responsibility: The role of CSR domains," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 502-513.
    19. Thomas P. Lyon & John W. Maxwell, 2008. "Corporate Social Responsibility and the Environment: A Theoretical Perspective," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 2(2), pages 240-260, Summer.
    20. Druehl, Cheryl T. & Schmidt, Glen M. & Souza, Gilvan C., 2009. "The optimal pace of product updates," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 192(2), pages 621-633, January.
    21. Johan Hultman & Hervé Corvellec, 2012. "The European Waste Hierarchy: From the Sociomateriality of Waste to a Politics of Consumption," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(10), pages 2413-2427, October.
    22. Longinos Marin & Salvador Ruiz, 2007. "“I Need You Too!â€\x9D Corporate Identity Attractiveness for Consumers and The Role of Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 71(3), pages 245-260, March.
    23. Heinz Schandl & Marina Fischer‐Kowalski & James West & Stefan Giljum & Monika Dittrich & Nina Eisenmenger & Arne Geschke & Mirko Lieber & Hanspeter Wieland & Anke Schaffartzik & Fridolin Krausmann & S, 2018. "Global Material Flows and Resource Productivity: Forty Years of Evidence," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 22(4), pages 827-838, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Patricia Crifo & Vanina Forget, 2013. "La responsabilité sociale et environnementale des entreprises : mirage ou virage ?," Working Papers hal-00830642, HAL.
    2. Patricia Crifo & Vanina Forget, 2012. "The Economics of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Survey," Working Papers hal-00720640, HAL.
    3. Ungureanu, Olga & van Oest, Rutger & Schauerte, Nico, 2025. "Add on or move on: Do in-game purchases help or hurt upgrading to newer game versions?," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 1105-1124.
    4. Wong, Jin Boon & Zhang, Qin, 2022. "Stock market reactions to adverse ESG disclosure via media channels," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(1).
    5. Larcker, David F. & Watts, Edward M., 2020. "Where's the greenium?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2).
    6. Dai, Qi & Jiang, Yuanyuan, 2026. "Front or back? The impact of AI information presentation order on purchase intentions at different AI innovation locus," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    7. Fukuda, Katsufumi & Ouchida, Yasunori, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the environment: Does CSR increase emissions?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    8. Talke, Katrin & Müller, Sebastian & Wieringa, Jaap E., 2024. "Technical newness: Putting a spotlight on its dynamic nature and effects," EconStor Preprints 300544, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    9. Shun-Pin Chuang & Sun-Jen Huang, 2018. "The Effect of Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility on Environmental Performance and Business Competitiveness: The Mediation of Green Information Technology Capital," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(4), pages 991-1009, July.
    10. Giulio Cainelli & Massimiliano Mazzanti & Simone Borghesi, 2012. "The European Emission Trading Scheme and environmental innovation diffusion: Empirical analyses using Italian CIS data," Working Papers 201201, University of Ferrara, Department of Economics.
    11. Kuppelwieser, Volker G. & Klaus, Phil & Manthiou, Aikaterini & Boujena, Othman, 2019. "Consumer responses to planned obsolescence," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 157-165.
    12. Jinhua Li & Yongyi Chen & Qiankai Qing, 2021. "Differentiated consumer responses to corporate social responsibility domains moderated by corporate social responsibility perceptions: A Kano model‐based perspective," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(6), pages 1606-1619, November.
    13. Jacobs, Nele & Swoboda, Bernhard, 2025. "How perceived stakeholder orientations affect consumers’ perceived firm innovativeness across nations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    14. Tianli,, 2024. "Endogenous choice of corporate social responsibility and emissions tax: What impact do green consumers have on economic welfare?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    15. Giovanni Marin & Massimiliano Mazzanti, 2009. "The dynamics of delinking in industrial emissions: The role of productivity, trade and R&D," Journal of Innovation Economics, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(1), pages 91-117.
    16. Alice Monti & Pierpaolo Pattitoni & Barbara Petracci & Otto Randl, 2022. "Does corporate social responsibility impact equity risk? International evidence," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 825-855, October.
    17. Thomas J. Chemmanur & Dimitrios Gounopoulos & Panagiotis Koutroumpis & Yu Zhang, 2022. "CSR and Firm Survival: Evidence from the Climate and Pandemic Crises," Working Papers 935, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    18. Sabbaghi, Mostafa & Esmaeilian, Behzad & Cade, Willie & Wiens, Kyle & Behdad, Sara, 2016. "Business outcomes of product repairability: A survey-based study of consumer repair experiences," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 114-122.
    19. Ilić, Dragan & Mollet, Janick Christian, 2015. "Voluntary Corporate Climate Initiatives and Regulatory Loom: Batten Down the Hatches," Working papers 2015/06, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    20. Jingjing Huang, 2023. "Doing good in periods of political turnover: the turnover of local officials, local corruption and corporate social responsibility," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(4), pages 781-833, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:196:y:2025:i:c:s0148296325002486. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.