Difference in new product adoption among at-risk members of society: A critical analysis of males, females, and transgender individuals

Abstract

The study examines how fear and embarrassment associated with the usage of a new product influence product adoption. The extant body of work on individual differences is largely based on educated, relatively wealthy individuals in industrialized countries. This study extended prior work by exploring the uptake of a new product among 1823 at-risk individuals including sex workers and drug users from countries with high HIV prevalence. The findings show that fear of contracting HIV encouraged new product adoption while embarrassment associated with taking the new product hindered it. It is noteworthy that embarrassment is a better predictor than fear. Critically, the effect of embarrassment differed across genders. Specifically, embarrassment plays a more important role for transgender and female individuals compared to males. The effects are driven by public and private embarrassment in sub-Saharan and non-sub-Saharan countries, respectively. This study thus contributes to the important work on sexuality, gender differences, fear, embarrassment, and the uptake of new products for high-risk or stigmatized members of marginalized communities. The findings also offer practical implications for communication strategies to facilitate the uptake of new products such as a new medicine among members of stigmatized communities, less wealthy, and less educated members of society.