Abstract
Creativity is seen as a significant driver for successful marketing activities. However, little attention is paid to its shady side and little research on the prerequisites for unethical behaviour of marketing experts and executives is on hand. In our experimental study, we examine the mutual influence of power, honesty-humility, and benevolent creativity as predictors for ‘dark creativity’ (the use of creative ideas for malevolent actions). Participants (N = 387) were randomly assigned to a high vs. low power condition (role of marketing director vs. marketing intern). Dark creativity was correlated to benevolent creativity, power motive, and honesty-humility, but did not depend on the power condition participants have been assigned to. In a hierarchical regression analysis only benevolent creativity and power motive predicted dark creativity. Additional variance was explained by role identification. This article is the first to investigate the impact of power on creativity in an immoral occupational task. Our findings support the concept of dark creativity as a combination of cognitive abilities and motivational aspects. The manipulation of power condition should be replicated in further research.
Highlights
One of the 4P of marketing (McCarthy, 1960) is the development and implementation of a promotional strategy
Creativity is seen as a significant driver for successful marketing activities (Bharadwaj & Menon, 2000; Im & Workman Jr, 2004; Ramocki, 1994)
The participants rated the price rise as highly immoral (M 1⁄4 3.73, SD 1⁄4 0.59 on a 4point Likert scale), which indicates a successful simulation of an unethical marketing task measuring dark creativity
Summary
One of the 4P of marketing (McCarthy, 1960) is the development and implementation of a promotional strategy. The novelty of a product gets advertised, and, at best, demand is developed and intensified by strengthening the usefulness of the product. Both attributes – novelty and usefulness – are the very same, which define creative products in general (Mumford, 2003). Creativity is seen as a significant driver for successful marketing activities (Bharadwaj & Menon, 2000; Im & Workman Jr, 2004; Ramocki, 1994).
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