The Handmade Effect: A Study On The Impact Of Handmade Methods On Product Creativity Evaluatio

With the development of science and technology,machine production methods have created an exciting consumption environment,which not only reduces production costs,but also greatly improves consumers’ living standards.The mechanized production method has drastically reduced the proportion of human manual labor,and social production activities are carried out closely around "high efficiency" and "fast pace." However,the development of machine production methods has triggered people’s thinking about existing production models and products,and more and more consumers have begun to pay attention to elegant,natural and original consumption.Recently,it is easy to find descriptions similar to the above-mentioned consumer demands from the marketing and promotion of the merchants.For example,the merchants deliberately downplay the standardized machine production of their products,and instead are keen on manual marketing and promotion,and present and produce them through the product production process.Background introduction and other means to convey the unique attributes of handmade methods to consumers.Nowadays,handmade marketing campaigns are appearing in different forms.In some shopping malls,you can even see merchants setting up complete textile workshop scenes in shops,allowing consumers to get close to the handmade production environment to render handmade production.Way of charm.For another example,in a handmade jewelry store,producers make creative products on site,allowing consumers to see the real production process.Online,e-commerce platforms have dedicated sections for handmade products,such as domestic Taobao and JD.com,and foreign Amazon and Etsy.In addition,there are online community communication platforms around handcrafted communication,such as instructables and ravelry.As we all know,with the gradual disappearance of traditional lifestyles on a global scale,traditional production methods have also withered.For example,handmade methods with a long history have been greatly impacted.The question is,why have handmade products flourished in recent years against the wave of mechanization? This study believes that this problem can be considered from three perspectives: First,the craftsman.The fundamental reason for the continuous development of handmade methods in modern society lies in the inheritance and development of traditional skills and insights into the needs of modern consumers.Only in this way can they maintain a high level of creativity on the basis of traditional skills.,And then create products that keep pace with the times.In fact,in the eyes of consumers,the value of handmade products is usually higher than that of standardized and mass-produced products.They believe that handmade products are capable of creating novel and practical products.Consumers can feel the special qualities of hand-producers,understand their exquisite skills,work attitude of excellence,and their wisdom and passion in the production process.The excellent human nature of the handcrafter allows consumers to have a more positive evaluation of handcrafted products and a deeper understanding of the craftsmanship displayed by the handcrafter.Second,consumers.With the rise of the middle class,people’s pursuit of wealth has slowed down.Instead,they have great demands for ecological and human consumption,and they are losing interest in products produced by standardized machines.The increasing development of mechanization has deprived human beings of initiative and initiative in production activities,resulting in products with no "temperature" presented to consumers.Traditional hand-made methods inject human endowments into products due to the dominance of people,and to a certain extent satisfy consumers’ humanized consumption needs.The third is national strategy.The craftsman spirit embodied by the hand-made method is in line with the country’s development strategy.At present,our country is carrying out the strategy of "mass innovation,entrepreneurship" and "created in China",which urgently needs the practice of craftsman spirit.Therefore,the above three aspects have contributed to the rapid development of handmade methods in the new era.From the above analysis,we can see that the handmade method is an area worthy of in-depth study in today’s society.In the consumer environment,handmade products bring more positive signals to consumers.At the same time,people’s consumer demand for creative products is also increasing sharply.As mentioned above,the hand-made method can reflect the many excellent qualities of the producer,such as insight,wisdom,excellence,focus,and enthusiasm,and there may be a certain connection between these characteristics and creativity.So,can handmade methods have a positive impact on product creativity evaluation? If it can have an impact,what is the mechanism of it? For this reason,the main purpose of this study is to explore whether and how the handmade method will have a positive impact on the evaluation of product creativity.In order to achieve the purpose of the research,the literature on handcrafting and creativity was sorted out and summarized in detail.Based on the knowledge activation theory and the contagion theory,the dual-path mechanism explained by wisdom perception and harmonious passion perception was systematically studied.Handmade effect.This research first conducted a preliminary qualitative study on the core issues with the help of interview methods,and made the following judgments after analyzing the results of the interviews: First,it is preliminarily believed that handmade methods can have a positive impact on the evaluation of product creativity;Try to think that the personal qualities of the hand-producer(enthusiasm and concentration of work,excellence in skills,agility of thinking and insight,etc.)can be reflected in the production process,and that these qualities are closely related to creativity;third,The influence of hand-made methods on product creativity may be mediated by the juxtaposition of consumers’ perception of the producer’s wisdom and passion for harmony.After qualitative interviews,this research conducted an empirical study on the effects of handmade production,its mechanism and theoretical boundaries through experimental methods,and found the following points: First,handmade methods(vs.machine-made methods)affect consumer products Evaluation of creativity(novelty and practicality)has a positive impact(Study 1).Second,the influence of handmade methods on the novelty of products is jointly mediated by wisdom perception and harmonious passion perception;the influence of handmade methods on product practicability is independently mediated by wisdom perception(Study 2 and 3).Third,the above-mentioned mediation effects are all moderated by the perception of effort(high vs.low)with mediation(Study 4).Specifically,the effort to perceive positively regulates the influence of handmade methods on the perception of wisdom and harmony and passion,and the influence of handmade methods on novelty through the perception of wisdom and harmony and passion;The influence of production methods on smart perception,and the influence of handmade methods on practicality through smart perception.Fourth,when discussing the moderating effects of consumer decision-making styles(perceptual decision-making vs.rational decision-making),it is found that different decision-making styles have different paths of manual effect mechanism.Specifically: Under the rational decision-making style mode,the handmade method influences product creativity evaluation(novelty and practicality)through intelligent perception to produce an intermediary adjustment;under the perceptual decision-making style mode,the handmade method is passionate through harmony Perception influences product creativity evaluation(novelty)to produce mediated moderates(Study 5).Fifth,when discussing the moderating effect of product categories(high-tech vs.low-tech),it was found that in the context of low-tech products,the handmade effect exists positively;in the context of high-tech products,the handmade effect produces a reverse effect(Study 6).Sixth,when discussing the moderating effect of the product display background(natural vs.unnatural),it was found that in the natural display background,the handmade method produced a higher evaluation of the novelty and practicality of the product through intelligent perception,and the manual The production method has a higher evaluation of product novelty through harmonious and passionate perception;in the context of unnatural display,the effect of handmade is weakened(Study 7).The main contributions of this research are as follows.First,it discovered the positive impact of handmade methods on product creativity evaluation.Judging from the available literature,this study analyzes the relationship between handmade methods and product creativity evaluation for the first time.In the past,the research on product creativity evaluation was mostly limited to the field of non-handmade products,and the attention to handmade products was extremely limited.Second,in the past,the manipulation of production methods was limited to the promotion of marketing concepts,and the impact of on-site production of products was not discussed.This research further analyzes the impact of on-site production of products on the basis of marketing and promotion of production methods.Third,this research has discovered the mediating role of wisdom perception and harmonious passion perception in the different dimensions of product creativity in the way of handmade.Specifically,it can be known from the knowledge-inspired theory that handmade methods can stimulate consumers’ perception of the maker’s wisdom and harmonious passion.According to the contagion theory,consumers will think that the manual maker can combine human wisdom with the product through contact with the product.Passion is passed on to the product,which in turn triggers a positive evaluation of product creativity.This discovery enriches and develops the knowledge stimulation theory and the infection theory,and deepens the intrinsic connection between these two theories and the hand-made effect.Fourth,this study found that the perception of effort has a mediating influence on the effect of hand-made.This is an important application of the theory of effort-inspiring,and it is also an important discovery of the boundary of the appraisal of the influence of handmade methods on product creativity.Fifth,this study found that consumers’ decision-making styles have an intermediary influence on the handmade effect,which provides a theoretical basis for understanding consumers’ decision-making psychology when purchasing handmade products.Sixth,the existing quantitative research on the effect of handmade has not yet discussed the influence of product categories.This research discusses the adjustment effect of high-tech and low-tech products on the effect of hand-made,filling the gap in the boundary of product categories.Seventh,it further discussed the influence of the display background on the handmade effect in the actual marketing environment.The marketing suggestions and enlightenment of this research for business managers are mainly reflected in the following points.First of all,this research found that handmade methods have an important impact on product creativity evaluation,and found that in different dimensions of creativity,handmade methods use a common or independent intermediary effect of wisdom perception and harmonious passion perception,and are subject to hard perception,Adjustment of product category,consumer decision-making style and display background.According to the research conclusions,it is suggested that business operators can actively guide consumers in cognitive and psychological aspects when marketing handmade products.For example,by embodying the description of the wisdom and passion of hand-makers,consumers can enhance their perception of these two characteristics of the maker,thereby enhancing their evaluation of hand-made products;for example,the hand-makers can be highlighted in the product description The effort level of the consumers enhances consumers’ perception of effort.For another example,companies should note that not all products are suitable for the promotion of handmade methods.If some high-tech products are labeled as handmade methods,it will bring negative effects.In addition,it is necessary to understand the consumer’s decision-making style and the environment in which the product is displayed in the actual marketing environment,which can have an important impact on product evaluation.Secondly,if the hand-made methods in modern society want to keep pace with the times,continuous innovation must be carried out.One of the ways is to co-create with consumers.Enterprises should accurately grasp consumers’ new demands for hand-made products.Finally,the spirit of craftsmanship embodied by hand-made methods will help enterprises achieve sustainable operation and the strategic construction of "Created in China".There are still shortcomings in this research,which are mainly reflected in the following points.First,the previous mainstream research on product creativity basically revolved around the two dimensions of novelty and practicality.This research also adopted this creativity evaluation system.Because handmade products have a certain degree of artistic beauty,and studies have proposed that aesthetics can be used as a dimension of creativity evaluation,it is slightly insufficient to focus on novelty and practicality when evaluating handmade product creativity.Therefore,future research can consider adding the dimension of aesthetics.Second,there are many potential mechanisms that affect consumers’ evaluation of the creativity of hand-made products.Although this study has found two core explanation mechanisms of wisdom perception and harmonious passion perception,it also excludes obsessive passion,love perception and other variables.Interference,but there may still be unconsidered influencing factors,and further research is necessary in the future.Third,this research discusses the theoretical boundary conditions of the hand-made effect from the consumer level and the marketing level,for example,the consumer decision-making style and the display background in the marketing environment.However,the discussion of boundary conditions is still insufficient.Next,we can analyze possible boundary conditions such as product familiarity and social class.Fourth,this study is based on domestic consumers.Handmade methods have a history of thousands of years in the East,especially in China.This may cause a deviation in the perception of hand-made methods between Eastern and Western cultures.Therefore,a comparative study of Eastern and Western culture can be considered in the future.In addition,due to the impact of the new crown epidemic,field experiments have not been conducted,and there is a lack of external validity tests.