| In the current value-based economy, organizations compete to match customer needs and requirements by adding various types of value to products or services. One example of this added-value is product creativity. The purpose of this dissertation is to construct a conceptual model of product creativity assessment and to develop and validate an instrument that measures product creativity factors from the consumer's perspective.; Three studies were performed to refine and validate a literature-based derived product creativity measurement instrument, which originally consisted of seven factors and 41 semantic pair items. The first study (N = 207) tested the product creativity measurement instrument with paper-based evaluations of general product creativity. Results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses refined the product creativity measurement instrument into a six factor model with 19 items, which explained 65% of the common variance. In two subsequent studies, the reduced instrument was further validated with web-based evaluations (N = 208) of specific consumer products (chairs and lamps) and with paper-based evaluations (N = 105) of individually selected products. Results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of these two studies indicated three main product creativity factors: Affect, Importance, and Novelty, which explained 72% of the common variance. Results of stepwise regressions consistently indicated that the Affect factor of product creativity significantly predicts willingness to purchase (65% of the explained purchasability variance) and customer satisfaction with (74% of the explained satisfaction variance) creative consumer products. Based on these findings, the three factor model of product creativity (Affect, Importance, and Novelty) with 14 measurement items proves to be a reliable and valid model for measuring consumer perception of product creativity. The main contribution of this research is the finding that affect is as equally (R2 = .28) important as novelty (R2 = .25) in consumer perception of product creativity, and that the affect factor of product creativity significantly influences consumer attitudes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed for the Affect, Importance, and Novelty product creativity factors, and general creativity guidelines are provided for consumer product design. |
