Revolution in marketing: using intentions and willingness as behavioral indicators for adopting neuromarketing

Marketing has experienced a number of significant developments, especially in the recent years. One such development is neuromarketing, an interdisciplinary approach that leverages knowledge and tools from an array of science disciplines. Marketing professionals face uncertainty in making complex decisions about investing their resources since there is a lack of empirical data to evaluate whether neuromarketing represents a revolution in marketing or just a temporary trend. This is especially important for geographical regions where resources are more scarce compared to larger economies. The aim of this research was to investigate whether neuromarketing is a revolution in marketing, by studying the intentions and willingness of marketing professionals in USA and South East Europe for adoption. The theoretical framework used to study it combines the Theory of Planned Behavior, Technology Acceptance Model, and Prototype Willingness model. The current literature was analyzed to assess the current state of neuromarketing. In Study 1, qualitative interviews were conducted to uncover the beliefs and attitudes towards neuromarketing adoption. In Study 2, an Implicit Association Test and survey were used to measure existing beliefs and attitudes and enable formulation of a theoretical model that describes the variables that contribute to neuromarketing adoption. Key finding suggests that neuromarketing has the potential to become a revolution, with subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and acceptance of the technology reliably predicting the intention to adopt neuromarketing. While explicit and implicit attitudes were not found to directly affect the intention to adopt neuromarketing, they complement its current understanding. These findings provide significant contribution to the academic literature as one of the first attempts to empirically identify the contributors to neuromarketing adoption and its potential acceptance as the new revolution. In addition, they suggest an action model that can be used to accelerate the adoption of neuromarketing, as well as other developments.