Investigating the acceptance of electronic books - the impact of haptic dissonance on innovation adoption

The digitization of the book industry is often said to lead the physical book to an end. Yet, many existing national book markets refuse to adopt the technological change. Consumers’ resistance to electronic books is generally viewed as a result of high prices and shortcomings of e-reading technology. The current paper tries to take a step toward a more differentiated view on ebook adoption. There is evidence that the different haptics of a physical book play an important role in ebook acceptance, especially in leisure settings. Therefore, the construct of haptic dissonance is derived from a theoretical basis, conceptualized and hypothesized as being an important antecedent of ebook acceptance. A qualitative study is conducted to show the relevance of haptic dissonance and to make a first proposal for operational measurement. Possible applications involve research on acceptance of or resistance to innovations where haptic attributes are salient.