Creativity and motivation in consumption
Marina Bianchi, Department of Economic Sciences, University of Cassino,
Introduction
1.Why it is important to understand creativity in consumption
a. its neglect in economic theory
b. and the privilege accorded to the problem of efficiency
2. Brief review of the psychological theories of creativity and their relation to motivations
a. from studies of personality to motivation studies
b. from individual psychology to social psychology
3. Recent consumer choice theories
a. what is creativity? Novelty& aptness
b. how it relates to reward (comfort and pleasure, flow, intrinsic vs extrinsic)
c. the role of knowledge: specialized vs generalized skills, domain-specific vs cross-domain knowledge.
d. the nature of the activity: heuristic vs algorithmic; defensive vs creative
4. The social dimension of consumption
a. the role of conformism and competition
b. domain-person-field
c. tolerance and the force of weak ties
About the speaker
Marina Bianchi is Professor of Economics at the University of Cassino, Department of Economic Sciences, where she teaches Microeconomics and Industrial Organization. She has written on problems related to the theory of the firm and on consumer choice theory. Her particular focus has been problems of preference formation and the role of novelty in consumption. She has analysed the characteristics of creative goods and the limits of the traditional economic framework in explaining choices concerning goods and activities of this type. She has tried to provide an alternative account which can explain apparent paradoxes of behaviour ranging from addiction to collecting to time preferences and the allocation of time, to fashion and the social dimension of consumption. In the years 2002 and 2006 she has taught at the Venice International University (Isola di S.Servolo) a course entitled "The Economics of Creative Goods." Recently she has edited a special issue of the Journal Advances in Austrian Economics entitled "The evolution of consumption, theories and practices". She is director of the Cassino Center for Economic Research, reativity and Motivation (CreaM)
Venue: Keizer Karelplein 19, Maastricht
Date: 02 October 2008
Time: 12:00 - 13:00 CEST
