Beyond outcomes: How regulatory focus motivates consumer goal pursuit processes

Abstract

This article reviews the current state of the regulatory focus literature as it relates to consumer behavior, with a special emphasis on the goal pursuit processes that naturally align with the promotion and prevention systems. Because most research on such processes has taken place within the framework of regulatory fit theory, we highlight regulatory fit findings. We also suggest practical implications of these goal pursuit processes for marketing and branding. We then shift our attention to the standards that people use to evaluate their goal pursuit processes and examine how these standards and their use might differ with respect to regulatory focus. Finally, we share a new line of work on regulatory focus-specific goal pursuit processes and describe avenues for future research.