Faculty of Business Seminar Series / Gizem Atav

Title: Attainment Goals and Maintenance Goals: The Appeal of Approach vs. Avoidance Framed Strategies

Abstract: The importance of savings for the individual consumer and businesses, which need healthy economic conditions to survive, is indubitable. Much existing research in self-regulation explores ways to improve consumers’ goal attainment; however, little attention has been appropriated to maintenance goals. This research investigates the differences between goal attainers and goal maintainers in the financial domain, with the primary objective of highlighting the strategic frames that will be motivating for each group. Building on past research in selfregulation,

approach and avoidance framing, and pride, I argue that maintainers, because they

experience more pride, will refuse to be restricted through avoidance-framed strategies (e.g., avoid eating out) and find approach-framed strategies (e.g., cook your meals at home) more appealing. Results from five experiments involving student and MTurk subjects support this argument. In Studies 1 and 2, I find that goal maintainers find approach-framed strategies more appealing than avoidance-framed strategies regardless of goal difficulty. Study 2 also reveals preliminary support for high levels of pride among goal maintainers. Studies 3 and 4 contrast the strategic inclinations of goal maintainers to those of goal attainers, and show that maintainers are more inclined towards approach-framed strategies while attainers are more inclined towards avoidance-framed strategies. Study 5 reveals that this difference among goal attainers and maintainers in their strategic inclinations is driven by the disparity in their level of pride. These findings contribute to research in self-regulation by investigating how level of pride and strategic inclinations may be different in the attainment and maintenance stages of goal pursuit. They also offer a practical solution on how motivation may be retained during the maintenance stage of goal pursuit. In addition, these findings suggest that by changing the framing of the selfregulation strategies according to whether the primary consumer goal is attainment or maintenance, self-regulation and savings can be improved.

Place : Meeting Room 345