A More Creative World Is a More Sustainable One: How to Increase Length of Product Usage through Creativity and Emotional Attachment

Overproduction and overconsumption represent key issues in the fight against resource waste and environmental degradation. While the scientific debate has mainly focused on how to increase product durability by improving tangible aspects (e.g., technical characteristics, materials used, production processes), the present research focuses on a consumer-based view of durability, looking at how long consumers plan to use a product for, a construct labeled length of product usage (LPU). The core thesis is that LPU might depend not only on tangible, but also on intangible product characteristics, such as creativity, defined in terms of high novelty and adequate appropriateness. In advancing this creativity-based LPU account, the authors argue that higher product creativity leads to higher LPU by strengthening consumers’ emotional attachment to products. Seven pre-registered studies, employing different products, populations, and creativity manipulations, empirically support the proposed framework. Results also show that the effect of creativity on LPU, via emotional attachment, is especially pronounced for non-owners, vs. owners, and, for mass-market, vs. luxury, products. By emphasizing that creativity can be key to fostering sustainable consumption, this research advances the literature on the antecedents of LPU and product durability, offers implications for companies, and avenues for future research.