The second purpose of this study is to explore differences in user characteristics in order to identify fit silver agers who are suitable for co-creation sessions. Thus, I included the user characteristics of aviation knowledge and innovativeness constructs in the survey to explore these properties (see 6.2.2).
Before commencing further analysis, the inter-item reliability of the constructs was evaluated. Cronbach’s alpha was calculated for all constructs: lead-userness (6 items;
Cronbach’s alpha=0.73), divergent thinking (6; 0.88), cognitive empathy – perspective taking (3; 0.79), domain-specific innovativeness (3; 0.79) and product knowledge (3; 0.76).
Reliability measures that exceed Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.7 are regarded as fair (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994); thus, the reliability of the constructs can be assumed.
Subsequently, construct values were calculated as unweighted means of the items.
In the following paragraph, I will discuss descriptive findings from the analysis of user characteristics and also discuss implications for the involvement of silver agers in co- creation settings. Table 3 shows bi-variate correlations of the measured constructs. Use experience (past five years) negatively correlates with chronological age, which confirms previous findings that silver-ager active consumption behaviour (here, air travel) eventually slows down or stops (see also chapter 6.4.1). As expected, lead-userness, product knowledge and domain-specific innovativeness are strongly positively correlated.
Table 3: Correlations of user characteristics, Spearman’s rho, n=626-1048, source: own analysis
Chron.
age
Cogn.
age Use exp.
Lead- usern.
Diverg.
think.
Cogn.
emp.
Prod.
knowl.
Domain- spec.
inno.
Chronological
age 1.000
Cognitive
age 0.631** 1.000
Use
experience -0.087** -0.040 1.000 Lead-
userness -0.070 -0.102** 0.224** 1.000 Divergent
thinking -0.084* -0.148** 0.048 0.121** 1.000 Cognitive
empathy -0.120** -0.171** 0.060 0.387** 0.387** 1.000 Product
knowledge -0.141** -0.148** 0.274** 0.497** 0.231** 0.331** 1.000 Domain-spec.
innovation 0.017 -0.096* 0.380** 0.449** 0.180** 0.312** 0.590** 1.000
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level, *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (both 2-tailed).
Lead-userness as a construct has to be regarded with great care in this aviation industry context. Air travel is provided as a service to the end customer and therefore actual innovation behaviour on the aeroplane cannot take place. Nevertheless, ‘innovative’
personal measures can be taken to improve the experience, like taking half-inflated swimming pool balls as foot rests or increasing backrest comfort with pillows or blankets (examples revealed in the survey by respondents). Moreover, customers can have ‘high
expected benefits’ for innovations and also be relatively ‘ahead of trend’, which are two sub constructs of lead-userness. Surprisingly, I see that lead-userness is negatively correlated with cognitive age but not with chronological age. This indicates that even chronologically old people can have high lead-userness characteristics when they ‘feel’
cognitively younger. Divergent thinking is negatively correlated with age, both chronological and cognitive. For co-creation sessions, which comprise of ideation and problem-solving tasks, divergent thinking is positively associated with success (Amabile, 1983). For the integration of silver agers into co-creation, this means that, independent of cognitive age, younger silver agers should be preferred if divergent thinking ability is required. The same holds true for cognitive empathy, which is also negatively correlated with both age measurements. And again, cognitive age has a higher negative correlation, indicating the importance of this measure. Product knowledge and domain-specific innovativeness have a high correlation (0.590). Also, the correlation of both constructs with lead-userness is fairly high (0.497 and 0.449). Thus, for the identification of suitable silver agers for integration into co-creation workshops, focusing on one construct should be sufficient (e.g. on lead-userness).
Dutch and German silver agers should have similar cultural backgrounds in terms of intercultural dimensions like ‘individualism’, ‘power distance’ or ‘uncertainty avoidance’
(Hofstede, 1983). Thus, I do not expect differences in user characteristics. Regarding use experience, I find that flight frequency actually improves in mid-silver age, in both the German and Dutch subsamples (see Figure 24). In order to prevent extreme values skewing the analysis, median values are shown. When looking at mean values, ageing business travellers disproportionately skew average flight numbers (not shown).
Use experience by age (no. of flights in past 5 years), median
N=986
> 80 years 60-65
years
70-75 years 65-70 years
75-80 years
< 60 years
NL GER
0-5 flights 6-10 flights
Figure 24: Use experience by age, source: own depiction
Once again, flight frequency highlights the importance of the target group as a whole and 60-75 year old silver agers in particular. Furthermore, the analysis shows that Dutch silver agers have a higher flight frequency at a younger age (60-65 years) and that they travel more frequently at higher ages (75-80 years). Also, it shows that active consumption decreases at around 75-80 years.
Cognitive empathy, the ability to take another person’s perspective, is a relevant character trait for product development in general and thus for ideation sessions with silver agers.
Figure 25 presents cognitive empathy scores by age group.
Cognitive empathy (perspective taking), mean of Likert-scale (1-5)
N=629 3.2
2.8 0 3.0 3.4
65-70 years
70-75 years
> 80 years 60-65
years
75-80 years
< 60 years
NL GER
Figure 25: Cognitive empathy, source: own depiction
It can be seen that cognitive empathy levels decrease with age, although absolute differences are low. German silver agers do not differ much from their Dutch counterparts and their combined level is fairly stable between 60 and 75 years of age. Above this age, average cognitive empathy levels tend to decrease.
Comparing the user characteristics of the German and Dutch samples, all measured items, such as divergent thinking, cognitive empathy, domain-specific innovativeness and product knowledge, are approximately on a similar level. Only lead-userness seems to be different.
Here, I see significantly higher levels for Dutch compared to German silver agers (see Figure 26). I can see lead-userness decreases with age (there is a similar slope for lead- userness x cognitive age). The difference in lead-userness is fairly constant for each age group and is not caused by the approximately two-year difference in cognitive age between German and Dutch silver agers.
To my knowledge, there is no scientific work that examines lead-userness differences specifically by culture or country. Intercultural management literature deals with societal differences in preferences (see e.g. Hofstede, 1983). In a meta-study, Herbig and Dunphy
(1998) compiled and linked these societal differences, among others, to the adoption of innovative technologies. They found that Hofstede’s dimensions of higher individualism, lower uncertainty avoidance, low power distance and long-term orientation can be linked to innovation. Comparing Germany’s and the Netherlands’ scores for these dimensions, the Netherlands reveals higher values in all dimensions except for power distance (approx. equal values, Hofstede, 1984). Under the assumption that lead-userness and technology adoption are in some respect aligned constructs, this can potentially explain the differences from an intercultural perspective.
Thus, I can conclude that lead-userness differs between German and Dutch silver agers and these differences cannot be explained by cognitive age differences.
Lead-userness by age, mean of Likert-scale (1-5)
N=627 2
0 1 3
GER
> 80 years 75-80 years 70-75 years
NL
65-70 years 60-65 years
< 60 years Lead-userness, mean
2.76
GER 2.08
NL
Figure 26: Lead-userness GER vs. NL, source: own depiction
For the integration of silver-ager lead users, I have to assume that, ceteris paribus, Dutch silver agers might be a better choice than their German counterparts.