창의적 매장 디스플레이가 창의적 소비행동에 미치는 영향: 창의적 소비효능감의 매개 효과를 중심으로

Consumer creativity in the context of product consumption can offer consumers satisfaction in the process of product consumption experience and help brands induce new product developments and increases in product sales. However, the research on consumer creativity is scarce. The current study aims to explore the effects of creative store display on consumers’ creative consumption behavior. Particularly, we expect that this effect will be mediated by creative consumer efficacy, which refers to the belief that one’s ability to create something new and useful is one of the main motivational drivers of individual creativity. The level of consumers’ acceptance or processing style about the visual stimulus, namely, creative store display, could differ based on personal characteristics. Thus, we explore the moderating effects of personal characteristics, such as openness-to-experience and perceived store aesthetics. To create the environments with creative store display, we manipulate the two levels of creativity in store display. For the condition of a high level of creativity, creative visual structures (e.g., wall design with optical illusions and unique structure) are added to the store. For the condition of a low level of creativity, creative visual structures are removed by keeping the layout and display of products in the store the same. After viewing one of the two types of store image (high vs. low creativity), participants are asked to answer a questionnaire containing a series of questions including creative consumer efficacy, creative consumption behaviors, openness-to-experience, and the perceived store aesthetics. The online survey targets women in their 20s-40s, and the data are collected through online research firms. A total of 112 samples are collected and analyzed using exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, frequency analysis, and bootstrap analysis through the SPSS 20.0 package. The results of bootstrap analysis show that the direct effect of creative store display on creative consumption behaviors is insignificant. However, the indirect effect, mediated by creative consumer efficacy, is significant, thereby indicating the mediating role of creative consumer efficacy between creative store display and creative consumption behaviors. In addition, the effect of the creativity of store display on creative consumption behaviors is moderated by openness-to-experience and the perceived store aesthetics. To see this moderated mediation effect in detail, we identify the conditional indirect effects, in which condition the mediating effect of creative consumption efficacy is significant (-1SD, mean and +1SD of moderating variables: openness-to-experience, perceived store aesthetics). The result demonstrates that, if people have high levels of openness-to-experience and perceived store aesthetics, the mediating effect of creative consumer efficacy between creative store display and creative consumption behaviors is significant even when store display is not creative. The results of the current study validate that people who have the adequate ability to accept and interpret the creative visual stimuli are likely to have a high level of creative consumer efficacy when they face creative store display. Increased creative consumer efficacy also drives consumers to show creative consumption behaviors. This study focuses on creative consumption behavior as a consequence of consumer creativity. For the future studies, various consequent variables, such as attitudes toward stores, intentions to purchase, and approach behaviors, can be tested to understand the effects of consumer creativity in the context of product consumption. In addition, future studies can broaden the scope of creative stimuli, including other aspects of store environments.