PERSPECTIVES ON VALUE CREATION - VARIATIONS ON THE ENERGIZATION MODEL

Psychological processes responsible for value creation are explored be ginning with the energization model (EM) developed by Brehm and his co lleagues (e.g., Wright & Brehm, 1989). Biner's (1987) study of the eff ects of task difficulty and goal value on goal attractiveness was repl icated as an additional test of EM. An initial analysis of the results supported the model: Goal attractiveness decreased with increased tas k difficulty at the moderate reward level but increased when the rewar d was highly valued. Closer inspection of the data revealed two possib le anomalies to EM, however. These anomalies, concerning the relation of the attractiveness and effort concepts to value creation, are analy zed in greater depth through use of gedanken experiments and from the perspective of personal equity-comparison theory (Seta & Seta, 1992) i n an effort to advance research in this promising area.