Journal of Marketing Research 2015

Climbing the Wrong Ladder: The Mismatch between Consumers' Preference for Subgoal Sequences and Actual Goal Performance

Liyin Jin¹; Qian Xu^2,1,3; Ying Zhang⁴

¹ Fudan University · ² Chinese University of Hong Kong · ³ University of Hong Kong · ⁴ Peking University

Abstract

When pursuing goals that involve subgoals of varying levels of difficulty, consumers prefer to follow a difficult-to-easy sequence when completing the subgoals because they believe that such a sequence renders the overall goal easier to achieve. However, consumers are actually more successful when they follow an easy-to-difficult sequence when completing subgoals. In seven studies, the authors present consistent evidence for this mismatch and explore the value of subgoals as an important boundary condition.

DOI

10.1509/jmr.13.0014

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APA 7 MLA 9 Chicago (author–date) Harvard Elsevier Harvard (JFE, JBF…) The Accounting Review Academy of Management American Marketing Association INFORMS (Management Science) Copy citation Copied ✓