Je vertrek voorbereiden of je verzekering afsluiten bij studie, stage of onderzoek in het buitenland
Study or work abroad? check your insurance options with The JoHo Foundation
Consumers are increasingly acting as co-creators of products, rather than just passive recipients. A few reasons for this preference can be identified:
The IKEA-effect refers to people´s willingness to pay more for self-made products than for identical ones made by others. Research has shown that people tend to overvalue their own creations, even for products that are not customized, unique, or fun to build.
People have a desire to signal a competent identity to themselves and others. Assisting in the production of products fulfill that need, by letting people control and shape their environments and displaying those creations to demonstrate competence. Especially when people´s feelings of competence have been threatened will they derive utility from self-assembly. Humans also have a fundamental need for effectance. Effectance refers to the ability to successfully produce desired outcomes in one´s environment. One way of accomplishing effectance is by affecting and controlling objects and possessions. In this way, consumers actively use products to signal their identities to others.
Self-affirmation theory focuses on how people adapt to information or experiences that threaten their self-concept. It argues that people strive to keep a positive view of the self, and that when they affirm one important value to the self they temporarily reduce the weight of another value. If the IKEA-effect is driven by the ability of self-made products to signal a valued identity, this effect should be reduced/eliminated if people are first allowed to affirm the self. On the other hand, if people´s sense of competence are threatened, it should increase the value they derive from self-creation and increase their motivation to participate in self-assembly.
With regards to competence, a distinction needs to be made between personal feelings of pride and the desire to show off a creation to others. The type of product created can say a lot about which component of competence is at work. Some products are meant to be displayed (like watches, or clothes), whereas others can be for personal use and won´t be seen by others (like a cupboard in the bedroom).
These results can be used by marketers to maximize customer satisfaction, but also by individuals to manage their life satisfaction. For marketers, it can be good to try and involve customers in the assembly of the products because it makes the customers feel competent and happy. The risk is that customers may attribute successful assembly to their own efforts, but assembly failures to the company. With regards to individuals´ life satisfaction, feelings of productivity serve as an important goal for many people.
JoHo can really use your help! Check out the various student jobs here that match your studies, improve your competencies, strengthen your CV and contribute to a more tolerant world
There are several ways to navigate the large amount of summaries, study notes en practice exams on JoHo WorldSupporter.
Do you want to share your summaries with JoHo WorldSupporter and its visitors?
Field of study
Je vertrek voorbereiden of je verzekering afsluiten bij studie, stage of onderzoek in het buitenland
Study or work abroad? check your insurance options with The JoHo Foundation
Add new contribution