The relationship between the substitution in use approach to product-market structure and cognitive accounts of product category structures is investigated in terms of the role of product usage context. Studies 1 and 2 show that distinctive usages predict similarity judgments, whereas usage versatility predicts prototypicality. The results of a third study suggest that individual usage contexts are associated with subcategories that involve restructuring of the overall category and, as such, guide context-specific product recall. Conceptual and managerial implications of the findings are discussed.
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