Abstract: Nowadays consumers are increasingly participating in the process of new product development. In our study, we researched consumer creativity from the perspective of creative participation. Creative participation is defined as consumers’ co-creation novel and valuable products, services, ideas, consumption experiences with firms during their purchase or consumption process. According to plenty of evidence of empirical researches, Need for cognition (NC), and Encouragement for creativity had a positive effect on creativity. Individuals who engage in and enjoy thinking are thought having high propensity to create. However, it is unlikely to come through when a person positioned himself as a consumer. As for consumers, if they believe that the creative activity is unnecessary for them, they will not expend energy on creative participation even though they are a diligent thinker (having a high need for cognition). Thus we posited that consumers’ NC, which is different from the result of generic researches on creativity, had not a significant effect on intention to creative participation. According to Need for Uniqueness Theory, one of consumers’ motivations for creative participation may come from their need for unique products. When consumers need to acquire the symbol of distinct self by unique products, they are driven to create. Thus we posited that consumers’ need for unique product had a positive effect on their intention to creative participation. OSL Theory may account for consumers’ another motivation (i.e., need for unique experience) to creative participation. As to those whose perceived level of stimulation are lower than their optimum level of stimulation, or who have higher level of stimulation, they probably need to seek unique experiences from the process of creation in order to attain their optimum level of stimulation. So we posited that consumers’ need for unique experience had a positive effect on their intention to creative participation. Although the two motivations have similarity in terms of consumer’s self-perception, i.e., both of motivations make consumer seek the perception of uniqueness, there are clear differences between them. Specifically, consumer’s need for unique product is outcome-oriented, and the participants driven by expected outcome are therefore concerned if the creative outcome forms the distinct self-image and social image. Whereas consumer’s need for unique experience is process-oriented, and the participants are concerned whether the process of creation is interesting and novel, and therefore increases the level of stimulation.
To examine the hypothesis, experimental method was adopted. We conducted a 2(encouragement for creative participation: high or low)*2 (relationship between service provider and consumer: strong or weak) between-subjective analysis to manipulate the experimental environment. 127 undergraduate students (74% female) participated in the experiment for extra credit in their course. Independent variables, such as Need for cognition, need for unique product, and need for unique experience were measured by established instruments. Dependent variable, i.e. creative intention was measured under the given experiment environment.
With hierarchical regression analysis, we found that NC, which was verified to have effect on intention of creative participation in some psychological researches on creativity, had no significant effect on consumers’ creative participation intention. We also found that consumers’ need for unique product (NFUP) as well as need for unique experience (NFUE) had effect on consumers’ creative participation intention. In addition, consumer’s trust in a firm moderated the relationship between NFUP and creative participation intention, and the encouragement of the firm for co-creation enhanced the relationship between NFUE and creative participation intention.
These findings have implications for segmentation, NPD process, and customer relationship building. Specifically, customers who are interested in creative participation can be divided into two groups: unique product seeker and unique experience seeker. Different marketing strategies should be laid down toward each group

Key words: consumer creativity, Uniqueness Theory, OSL(Optimum Stimulation Leve)Theory