101 Business Ideas That Will Change the Way You Work

IDEA #82

Elbow grease – the value generator

We ascribe greater value to items we have helped create than ones we haven’t.

What you need to know

Beyond offering good value and stylish design, are there other factors at play in explaining the global success of the Swedish self-assembly furniture giant IKEA? According to research coming from Harvard Business School, the extent to which we are involved in the creation of our IKEA furniture or other products helps to raise the value of the item in our eyes. Building on the ‘effort justification’ thesis espoused by Matthew White and Paul Dolan (which explains the paradox that for many people ...