Are financial constraints a threat to creativity? Research in management and strategy seems to suggest that abundant financial resources favor innovation and creativity (e.g., Amabile, 1996). Nevertheless, research on creativity has shown that constraints may foster rather than hinder creativity. For some individuals, for instance, time constraints, if not extreme, can enhance creativity by inhibiting conventional responses to a problem and promoting unusual, unexpected ones (Ridgway and Price, 1991; Burroughs and Mick, 2004). Similarly, input resource constraints, i.e., ‗using what is at hand‘ can lead to the ideation of products that are judged as highly innovative and creative, and that are successful in the market (Goldenberg et al., 2001; Moreau and Dahl, 2005). Empirical evidence as to whether financial constraints also increase creativity is lacking. However, the psychology and creativity literatures have provided conceptual and experimental evidence that individuals can be more creative when bounded by constraints than when faced with a ‗blank state‘ (see Finke et al., 1992; Goldenberg et al., 2001). This research contributes to the literature on consumer creativity by analyzing the effects of financial constraints on consumer creativity in both product ideation and problem-solving tasks. In addition, following recent recommendations on the adoption of an interactionist perspective for the study of creativity (Runco and Sakamoto, 1999; Burroughs and Mick, 2004), the effect of constraints is not analyzed in isolation, but in interaction with an individual-difference factor such as novelty seeking traits.
Effects of financial constraints and novelty seeking on consumer creativity
SCOPELLITI, IRENE;CILLO, PAOLA;BUSACCA, BRUNO GIUSEPPE;MAZURSKY, DAVID
2011
Abstract
Are financial constraints a threat to creativity? Research in management and strategy seems to suggest that abundant financial resources favor innovation and creativity (e.g., Amabile, 1996). Nevertheless, research on creativity has shown that constraints may foster rather than hinder creativity. For some individuals, for instance, time constraints, if not extreme, can enhance creativity by inhibiting conventional responses to a problem and promoting unusual, unexpected ones (Ridgway and Price, 1991; Burroughs and Mick, 2004). Similarly, input resource constraints, i.e., ‗using what is at hand‘ can lead to the ideation of products that are judged as highly innovative and creative, and that are successful in the market (Goldenberg et al., 2001; Moreau and Dahl, 2005). Empirical evidence as to whether financial constraints also increase creativity is lacking. However, the psychology and creativity literatures have provided conceptual and experimental evidence that individuals can be more creative when bounded by constraints than when faced with a ‗blank state‘ (see Finke et al., 1992; Goldenberg et al., 2001). This research contributes to the literature on consumer creativity by analyzing the effects of financial constraints on consumer creativity in both product ideation and problem-solving tasks. In addition, following recent recommendations on the adoption of an interactionist perspective for the study of creativity (Runco and Sakamoto, 1999; Burroughs and Mick, 2004), the effect of constraints is not analyzed in isolation, but in interaction with an individual-difference factor such as novelty seeking traits.
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