Consumers as creative agents: How required effort influences willingness to engage
研究了消费者参与品牌共创活动时，预期努力水平（高 vs 低）如何通过影响成功概率感知和参与价值感知，进而降低参与意愿，并发现临时心态比长期心态的调节作用更显著。
Abstract Consumers often engage with brands by participating in activities such as co‐creating 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.