Children's impact on innovation decision making

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to analyse children's impact on innovation decision making empirically. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a diary study with 14 parents depicting their experiences with regard to the topic of interest over a period of two weeks. Findings Children's influence is stronger in earlier stages of the innovation buying process, based on different communication strategies with differing effects on their parents' purchasing behaviour. Practical implications This paper helps marketers tailor appropriate marketing and innovation strategies. Special attention is given to the familial dynamics in the innovation decision‐making process. This is to prevent inter‐family conflicts fuelled by the children's requests. Originality/value This is one of the first attempts to test Rogers' innovation‐decision process. Moreover, despite its many bonuses, the diary method has rarely been applied in the context of familial purchase decision making.