Automation is increasingly being introduced into a variety of consumer products, ranging from vacuum cleaners to autonomous vehicles. While automation provides convenience and efficiency benefits consumers value, related evidence suggests it can also undermine post-purchase consumer product responses of importance to managers (e.g., brand loyalty). Using insights derived from Amazon customer reviews, a survey of product owners, a virtual reality lab, and two vignette experiments, we formally explore this possibility and find that automation is indeed a double-edged sword. That is, we uncover that automation has undesirable effects on post-purchase outcomes because it interferes with psychological ownership formation. We also find that, depending on consumer identity motives (e.g., task-related vs. technology-related) and product design affordances (e.g., a remote access feature), this effect can be strengthened, weakened, or even reversed. Our findings offer managers needed guidance on how to counter automation’s dark side through identity-based targeting and product design.

自动化越来越多地被引入各种消费产品，从真空吸尘器到自动驾驶汽车。虽然自动化提供了消费者重视的便利和效率优势，但相关证据表明，它还可能破坏对经理很重要的购后消费品反应（例如，品牌忠诚度）。利用来自亚马逊客户评论、产品所有者调查、虚拟现实实验室和两个小插曲实验的见解，我们正式探索了这种可能性，并发现自动化确实是一把双刃剑。也就是说，我们发现自动化会对购买后的结果产生不良影响，因为它会干扰心理所有权的形成。我们还发现，这取决于消费者身份动机（例如，与任务相关的 vs. 技术相关）和产品设计可供性（例如，远程访问功能），这种影响可以加强、削弱甚至逆转。我们的研究结果为管理人员提供了如何通过基于身份的定位和产品设计来对抗自动化阴暗面的指导。