U-Shaped Relation between Negative Emotions and Customer Creativity in Corporate Innovation Context

Purpose — Emotion is one of the key factors affecting creativity. In the field of marketing research, researchers generally begin to explore how to make rational use of customers” negative emotions to contribute to companies’ innovation process. However, the existing views are still divergent. Design/methodology/approach — To explore the relationship between customers’ negative emotions and creativity, we construct a research model from the perspective of self-determination Theory and Resource Preservation Theory, Based on this model, we conducted an empirical study with 401 participants. Findings: — We found that there is an inverse U-shaped relation between negative emotion and creativity. And we further verified the mediating role of customer intrinsic motivation and the moderating role of innovation self-efficacy. Originality/value — The understanding of the nonlinear relationship between emotion and creativity may provide valuable theoretical contributions to the research of creativity, and provide practical guidance for the design of innovative activities.