Consumers as creative agents: How required effort influences willingness to engage

Abstract

Consumers often engage with brands by participating in activities such as cocreating products and contributing ideas about product promotion. Such engagement enables consumers to be creative agents rather than mere end-users. However, it also places a burden on them, as it inevitably requires effort on the consumer part. This study investigates the impact of expected effort level (low vs. high) on consumers' inclination toward engagement, and its underlying mechanisms.Three experiments find that higher expected effort leads to lower intention to engage. This effect is mediated by the perceived probability of success and perceived value of engagement, and the two mediators operate in tandem. Effort levels negatively affect the perceived probability of success, which exerts a positive impact on the perceived value of engagement and then on willingness to engage. We also examine the moderating effect of consumer mindsets and find that chronic and situational consumer mindsets work differently. Specifically, primed mindsets have a significant effect, but enduring mindsets do not. This study contributes to the literature on engagement and expectancy-value theory by exploring consumer effort in a context where effort aids in implementing creativity.

Engagement in digital interventions.

“…Physical energy investment takes on various forms, depending on the field of research. For example, in intervention research, physical energy investment can be captured via attendance, appointment keeping, or adherence to treatment protocols (King et al, 2014), whereas in consumer research, it may involve consumption activities, providing reviews and recommendations, blogging or vlogging, and even cocreating products with companies (Zeng & Mourali, 2021). Across fields, physical energy investment is often labeled as “participation” (King et al, 2014; Mai et al, 2021).…”

Beyond the Big Five: The effect of machiavellian, narcissistic, and psychopathic personality traits on stakeholder engagement

“…We take this multidimensional perspective, as it not only captures SE's observable engagement behavior, but also, its underlying cognitions and emotions (Bissola & Imperatori, 2016), thus offering more comprehensive SE-based insight. For example, while employees will spend time, thought, and effort in engaging with their job (Zeng & Mourali, 2021), suppliers' engagement will see them purchase, move, and (re)distribute stock, while also liaising with their staff and clients, exposing their respective cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement.…”

“…We take this multidimensional perspective, as it not only captures SE's observable engagement behavior, but also, its underlying cognitions and emotions (Bissola & Imperatori, 2016), thus offering more comprehensive SE‐based insight. For example, while employees will spend time, thought, and effort in engaging with their job (Zeng & Mourali, 2021), suppliers' engagement will see them purchase, move, and (re)distribute stock, while also liaising with their staff and clients, exposing their respective cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement. Moreover, in the context of dark triad‐based personality traits, we expect a stakeholder's cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement to affect (or be affected by) these traits, as discussed further in Section 3, thus revealing the applicability of a multi (vs. uni)dimensional SE perspective in our analyses.…”

Virtual agents that flatter you: Moderating effects of self‐esteem and customization target in e‐customization services

“…The existing literature has repeatedly demonstrated that involving consumers in the customization process is crucial (Zeng & Mourali, 2021). High involvement will increase product satisfaction and identification (Franke & Schreier, 2010; Kwon et al, 2017), brand loyalty (Yoo & Park, 2016), and willingness to pay (Franke et al, 2010; Randall et al, 2007).…”