EXPRESS: Local–Global Identity Salience and Creativity: The Mediating Role of Group–Based Pride

Abstract

This research investigates how the situational salience of local versus global identity shapes consumers’ creative performance. One field study, six controlled experiments, secondary data from a large crowdsourcing platform, and interviews with managers demonstrate that consumers with a situationally accessible local identity generate more creative outputs than those with a salient global identity. Group-based pride is the key mechanism underlying this effect. Consistent with the group-based pride account, externally enhancing group-based pride increases creativity among consumers with a salient global identity, while externally reducing group-based pride decreases creativity among consumers with a salient local identity. By identifying local–global identity as a novel antecedent of consumer creativity, this research contributes to the literature on creativity and identity salience and highlights group-based pride as a distinctive pathway linking identity salience to creativity. These findings also suggest that contextual cues that activate local versus global identity may serve as a useful managerial tool for enhancing consumer creativity in ideation, crowdsourcing, and co-creation contexts.