Jordan Etkin Curriculum Vitae, June 2012 Robert H. Smith School of Business Phone: (703) 887-6048 University of Maryland Fax: (301) 405-0146 College Park, Maryland 20742 E-mail: jetkin@rhsmith.umd.edu Education Ph.D., Marketing, June 2013 (expected) Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, MD Concentration in Consumer Behavior, minor in Psychology B.Sc., Economics (Summa Cum Laude), August 2008 The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Concentration in Decision Processes Journal Publications Etkin, Jordan and Rebecca K. Ratner (2013), Goal Pursuit, Now and Later: Temporal Compatibility of Different versus Similar Means, Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming. Etkin, Jordan and Rebecca K. Ratner (2012), The Dynamic Impact of Variety among Means on Motivation, Journal of Consumer Research, 38 (April), 1076-92. Kopetz, Catalina, Arie W. Kruglanski, Zachary G. Arens, Jordan Etkin, and Heather M. Johnson (2012), The Dynamics of Consumer Behavior: A Goal Systematic Perspective, Journal of Consumer Psychology, 22 (April), 208-23. Manuscripts under Review Etkin, Jordan, Anastasiya Pocheptsova, and Francine Espinoza, Effects of Positive Mood on Perceived Differences between Goals and Preference for Products in Multiple-Goal Pursuit (under 2 nd round of review, Journal of Marketing Research) Etkin, Jordan, Uzma Khan and Anastasiya Pocheptsova, Winning through Conflict: When Goal Conflict Increases Motivation (under review, Journal of Consumer Research) Etkin, Jordan and Juliano Laran, Freedom for all? Divergent Effects of Free Choice on Goal Pursuit (under review, Journal of Marketing Research) Research Interests Judgment and decision making Goal-based choice and evaluations of goal-related products Consumer motivation and goal pursuit Research in Progress Blind to All Else: The Role of Mindsets in Multiple-Goal Pursuit, with Anastasiya Pocheptsova and Ravi Dhar (working paper) Essence of Variety: The Influence of Partitions on Consumption of Extrinsically versus Intrinsically Varied Items, with Rebecca Ratner (working paper)
When to Take Action? Effects of Progress and Time Horizon on Goal-Directed Motivation, with Rebecca Ratner (manuscript in preparation) How the Similarity of Means Impacts Decisions to Delay versus Expedite Goal Pursuit, with Rebecca Ratner (data collection in progress) Positive Mood and Perceptions of Inter-Goal Conflict, with Anastasiya Pocheptsova (data collection in progress) Honors and Awards Frank T. Paine Doctoral Award for Academic Achievement, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, 2012 Top 15% Teaching Award, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, 2010-2011 AMA Sheth Consortium Fellow, 2012 Invited Presenter, Yale Whitebox Advisors Conference, 2012 Dissertation From One to Many: Toward an Understanding of Multiple Means and Multiple Goals Co-chairs: Rebecca Ratner and Anastasiya Pocheptsova Committee Members: Rosellina Ferraro, Arie Kruglanski (Psychology), Wendy Moe (Proposal defended on October 5, 2011) Consumers often use products, services, and behaviors (i.e., means) to help them pursue their goals. To date, the majority of research in this area has focused on the use of a single means to pursue a single goal, for instance, running on a treadmill as a means to a fitness goal (e.g., Fishbach and Ferguson 2007; Zhang et al. 2007). However, consumers frequently have multiple means available for goal pursuit. For example, consumers may use multiple types of exercises, protein supplements, or articles of athletic clothing as means to the attainment of a fitness goal. Moreover, consumers typically have not one, but multiple goals that they wish to pursue at the same time; for instance, pursuing goals such as doing well at work and spending time with loved ones in addition to a fitness goal. The multiple means consumers may use for goal pursuit can be considered as constituting a set of means to goal attainment; likewise, consumers multiple co-activated goals constitute a set of goals. In three essays, my dissertation explores how consumers perceptions of the relationships among sets of means (e.g., multiple types of exercises or multiple protein supplements as means to a fitness goal) and sets of goals (e.g., goals to be fit, do well at work, and spend time with loved ones) influence goal-directed motivation. The first two essays of my dissertation examine how the perceived similarity of a set of means impacts motivation to pursue a goal. In Essay I (Etkin and Ratner, JCR, 2012), I consider the impact of perceiving more (vs. less) similarity (i.e., variety) among means on motivation as consumers move from having made low progress to high progress towards achieving a goal. In Essay II (Etkin and Ratner, JCR, forthcoming), I explore how temporal compatibility between different (vs. similar) means and a near (vs. far) time horizon for goal pursuit affects goal-directed motivation. Finally, Essay III (Etkin, Pocheptsova, and Espinoza, JMR, under review) considers how factors that influence consumers perceptions of differences between goals (i.e., positive mood) impacts perceptions of a means ability to simultaneously serve multiple goals, as well as consumers preferences for these means.
Conference Presentations and Invited Talks Etkin, J. & R.K. Ratner, The Dynamic Impact of Variety among Means on Motivation, Paper presented at: o Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Washington, D.C., 2012 (Invited talk) o Marketing in Israel Conference, Tel Aviv, 2011 (Invited talk) o Society for Judgment and Decision Making, Seattle, 2011 o Association for Consumer Research North America Conference, Jacksonville, 2010 Etkin, J. & R.K. Ratner, Goal Pursuit, Now and Later: Temporal Compatibility of Different versus Similar Means, Paper presented at: o Behavioral Decision Research in Management, Boulder, 2012 Etkin, J., A. Pocheptsova, & F. Espinoza, Effects of Positive Mood on Perceived Differences between Goals and Preference for Products in Multiple-Goal Pursuit, Paper presented at: o Association for Consumer Research North America Conference, St. Louis, 2011 o Society for Consumer Psychology, St. Pete s Beach, 2010 Etkin, J., U. Khan, & A. Pocheptsova, Winning through Conflict: When Goal-Conflict Increases Motivation, Paper presented at: o Behavioral Decision Research in Management, Boulder, 2012 o Yale Whitebox Advisors Graduate Student Conference, New Haven, 2012 (Invited talk) o Association for Consumer Research North America Conference, St. Louis, 2011 Etkin, J. & J. Laran, Freedom for All? Divergent Effects of Free Choice on Goal Pursuit, Paper presented at: o Society for Consumer Psychology, Las Vegas, 2012 Teaching Interests Consumer Behavior, Marketing Research, Marketing Management, Dynamic Goal Systems Teaching Experience Instructor, Consumer Analysis (undergraduate), University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business, Fall 2010. Teaching Evaluation: 4.73/5.00 Teaching Assistant for Prof. David Godes, Marketing Management (MBA), University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business, Spring 2011 Service Organizing Committee, University of Maryland Judgment and Decision Making Symposium, 2011-2012 Trainee Reviewer, Journal of Consumer Research, 2012 Student Volunteer, Association for Consumer Research North America Conference, 2011 Reviewer, Association for Consumer Research North America Conference, 2010-2012 Reviewer, Society for Consumer Psychology Annual Conference, 2010-2012 Professional Affiliation Association for Consumer Research (ACR) Society for Judgment and Decision Making (SJDM)
Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP) Behavioral Decision Research in Management (BDRM) Graduate Coursework (GPA: 4.0) Marketing Survey of Consumer Behavior Amna Kirmani Behavioral Research in Marketing Joydeep Srivastava Survey of Marketing Strategy Wendy Moe Information Processing Rosellina Ferraro Psychology Social Psychology of Goals (A+) Arie Kruglanski Group Processes Charles Stangor Social Psychology Independent Study Rebecca Ratner Research Methods Survey of Marketing Models P.K. Kannan Experimental Methods in Behavioral Research Rebecca Hamilton Quantitative Methods in Psychology I (A+) Paul Hanges Quantitative Methods in Psychology II (A+) Kevin O Grady References Rebecca K. Ratner Associate Professor of Marketing Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland 3307 Van Munching Hall, College Park, MD 20742 Tel: (301) 405-2175 Email: rratner@rhsmith.umd.edu Anastasiya Pocheptsova Assistant Professor of Marketing Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland 3307 Van Munching Hall, College Park, MD 20742 Tel: (301) 405-8342 Email: apochept@rhsmith.umd.edu Arie W. Kruglanski Distinguished University Professor of Psychology Department of Psychology, University of Maryland 3147 Biology/Psychology, College Park, MD 20742 Tel: (301) 405-5918 Email: kruglanski@gmail.com
Abstracts by Topic I. Multiple Means The Dynamic Impact of Variety among Means on Motivation, with Rebecca K. Ratner Consumers often have a variety of products that they may use to help them pursue their goals. These products constitute a set of means toward consumers goal attainment. This article investigates (1) how the amount of variety (high vs. low) among a set of means affects motivation to pursue the associated goal and (2) how this relationship changes over the course of goal pursuit as progress is made toward goal attainment. Five studies demonstrate that when progress toward goal attainment is low, having more variety within a set of means to goal attainment increases motivation to pursue the goal. However, when progress toward goal attainment is high, having less variety within a set of means to goal attainment increases motivation to pursue the goal. For instance, participants who perceived low progress towards goal attainment were willing to pay more for a box of protein bars when the bars were perceived as more varied, but participants who perceived high progress towards goal attainment were willing to pay more for the bars when the bars were perceived as less varied. These findings suggest that retailers adopt different promotion strategies depending on the composition of their customer base. For instance, retailers that target customers who have not yet invested much time and energy in being fit may wish to emphasize the variety among their fitnessrelated product offerings to keep their customers purchasing in the category. In contrast, retailers that cater to customers who have already invested time and energy in being fit (e.g., GNC) may be well advised to highlight a dimension other than variety (e.g., quality) to encourage repeat purchase. Goal Pursuit, Now and Later: Temporal Compatibility of Different versus Similar Means, with Rebecca K. Ratner Successful goal pursuit often requires that consumers plan for goal pursuit over both a short and long time horizon. For instance, consumers with a goal to be healthy may purchase healthy snacks with the intention of consuming them over the course of the next week, or over the course of the next month. This research proposes that temporal compatibility between the degree of similarity among means to goal attainment and the anticipated timing of goal pursuit increases goal-directed motivation. Six studies demonstrate that consumers are more motivated and willing to pay for means to goal attainment in the near term when they plan to use a set of different (vs. similar) means. In contrast, consumers are more motivated and willing to pay for means to goal attainment in the long term when they plan to use similar (vs. different) means. For example, consumers were more motivated to save money when they focused on different (similar) approaches to meeting their current (future) savings goal. These effects are driven by the ease of processing differences (similarities) when considering the near (far) future (Förster 2009). Similar results were obtained across various domains including health, fitness, and academic performance. Implications are discussed for marketers who wish to motivate immediate action (emphasizing differences between products and services) versus delayed action (emphasizing commonalities among products and services), or who wish to motivate sales of diverse products (advocating immediate usage) versus similar products (advocating usage over a longer time horizon). Freedom for all? Divergent Effects of Free Choice on Goal Pursuit, with Juliano Laran This paper examines the influence of having freedom of choice when pursing a goal on subsequent goal pursuit. We propose that when a goal is activated prior to choice, having freedom of choice (vs. restricted freedom) satisfies the goal to a greater extent, leading to a decrease in subsequent motivation to pursue the goal. For example, consumers with an active health goal who freely choose healthy snack choices (e.g., without feeling restricted by government regulations) will subsequently be less motivated to engage in healthy behaviors. When the goal is not activated prior to choice,
however, choosing goal-related products with freedom increases consumers perceived ownership of goal pursuit, leading to an increase in subsequent motivation. For example, consumers who make healthy snack choices without a salient health goal will subsequently be more motivated to engage in healthy behaviors. We support these predictions with six studies in the domains of health and saving goals, using manipulations of restricted freedom involving choice by custodians, limited options, and government restrictions. Our findings suggest that although consumers may express unfavorable attitudes towards freedom restrictions, relinquishing some amount of freedom to knowledgeable custodians may help consumers maintain focus on pursuit of their self-regulatory goals. II. Multiple-Goal Pursuit Effects of Positive Mood on Perceived Differences between Goals and Preference for Products in Multiple-Goal Pursuit, with Anastasiya Pocheptsova and Francine Espinoza When consumers have multiple goals they wish to pursue at the same time, they tend to prefer products that simultaneously serve several of their goals. However, consumers ability to identify available products as helping them pursue multiple goals depends on their perceptions of the relationship between their goals; when consumers see their multiple goals as relatively different (vs. similar), they less readily perceive means to goal attainment as simultaneously serving several of their goals. In the present research, we consider how incidental mood affects consumers perceptions of differences between their goals and subsequent preference for goal-related products. We argue that because pursuing multiple goals requires resource tradeoffs, in the context of multiple-goal pursuit positive mood spontaneously prompts a focus on differences between goals. As a result, positive mood leads consumers to perceive more differences between their multiple goals, consequently decreasing their ability to identify and choose products that serve multiple goals. Our findings have implications for the use of mood appeals in product promotions, as consumers receptivity to multifunctional products may depend on how different they perceive the products various functionalities and associated goals to be. Winning through Conflict: When Goal-Conflict Increases Motivation, with Uzma Khan and Anastasiya Pocheptsova People often experience feelings of inter-goal conflict when they have multiple goals they wish to pursue at the same time (Emmons and King 1988; Kruglanski et al. 2002). Whereas extant research has identified a negative effect of inter-goal conflict on goal-directed motivation, we propose that inter-goal conflict can at times increase motivation. Specifically, we argue that individuals draw inferences regarding goal importance based on their experience of inter-goal conflict: when goals are perceived to be in more (vs. less) conflict, individuals believe they are more (vs. less) important. Perceiving goals to be more important subsequently increases motivation to pursue the conflicting goals. Six studies support these propositions, showing that goal conflict can increase motivation in multiple-goal pursuit by enhancing perceived goal importance. Our work suggests that sustaining multiple (vs. a single) goal strivings may increase both how motivated consumers feel as well as how hard they strive to achieve the goals. Blind to All Else: The Role of Mindsets in Multiple-Goal Pursuit, with Anastasiya Pocheptsova and Ravi Dhar Extant research finds that when consumers have multiple active goals, they typically aim for balance in goal pursuit, alternating choice of products consistent with each goal. Less, however, is known about conditions under which balancing is disrupted and consumers instead choose to highlight pursuit of a single goal; consequently forgoing products that help achieve multiple co-active goals simultaneously. In this paper we demonstrate that consumers propensity to highlight (vs. balance) in
multiple-goal pursuit is moderated by the mindset associated with pursuit of each goal. Across five studies we show that being in an implemental (vs. deliberative) mindset for one of multiple active goals leads consumers to highlight pursuit of that goal at the expense of others, thereby reversing existing findings. This work provides insight for companies offering products with several functionalities, positioned as simultaneously fulfilling multiple of consumers goals (e.g., cell phones that are described as helping consumers answer work emails and stay connected with family). Our findings suggest consumers preferences for these types of products may be contingent on the goalrelated mindsets that marketers activate or that consumers bring to bear on the choice context. III. Consumer Motivation The Dynamics of Consumer Behavior: A Goal Systematic Perspective, with Catalina Kopetz, Arie W. Kruglanski, Zachary Arens, and Heather M. Johnson Consumers goals constitute cognitive constructs that can be chronically active as well as primed by features of the environment. Goal systems theory outlines the principles that characterize the dynamics of goal pursuit and explores their implications for consumer behavior. In this vein, we discuss from a common, goal-systemic, perspective a variety of well-known phenomena in the realm of consumer behavior including brand loyalty, variety seeking, impulsive buying, preferences, choices and regret. The goal-systemic perspective affords guidelines for subsequent research on the dynamic aspects of consumption behavior as well as offers insights into practical matters in the area of marketing. For instance, a large body of prior work has documented consumers tendencies to seek variety in consumption experiences (Givon 1984, Kahn 1995; Ratner et al. 1999). A goalsystemic perspective would account for variety-seeking behavior by suggesting that it derives from situations where consumers have multiple active goals at the same time. The presence of alternative goals varies from situation to situation, thereby inducing instability into consumers course of action. When to Take Action? Effects of Progress and Time Horizon on Goal-Directed Motivation, with Rebecca K. Ratner This research examines the joint effects of progress (low vs. high) towards goal attainment and the temporal horizon (near vs. far) of goal pursuit on consumer motivation. We posit that low progress consumers will be more motivated when they consider goal pursuit in the near (far) future, whereas high progress consumers will be more motivated when they consider goal pursuit in the far (near) future. Further, we argue that these effects obtain due to concerns regarding the likelihood of goal achievement in the case of low progress individuals, and of growing complacent with goal pursuit in the case of high progress individuals. Results of four studies provide support for our reasoning, demonstrating that low progress consumers are more motivated when they consider goal pursuit in the near (vs. far) future because a near future focus boosts their confidence in goal achievement, whereas high progress consumers are more motivated when they consider goal pursuit in the far (vs. near) future because a far future focus decreases complacency with goal pursuit. The beneficial effect of adopting a near versus far future time horizon for goal pursuit among low progress consumers is moderated by chronic (and experimentally induced) differences in self-efficacy. IV. Variety in Consumer Choice The Essence of Variety: The Influence of Partitions on Consumption of Extrinsically versus Intrinsically Varied Items, with Rebecca K. Ratner We investigate consumers interest in deep versus surface characteristics vis-à-vis variety. Whereas prior work suggests that individuals primarily attend to surface characteristics during consumption (e.g., Kahn and Wansink 2004, Rolls et al. 1981), the present findings indicate that deep characteristics play a more influential role in driving consumption decisions when those deep
characteristics are made salient. We test these ideas in a series of four experiments considering both actual and virtual consumption, using a manipulation that cues variety (i.e., partitioning a set of items into smaller groupings of items). We further examine one moderator of these effects: the desirability of the items to be consumed. Our findings have important implications for policy makers charged with encouraging consumption of healthy food options and discouraging consumption of unhealthy food options. For instance, one way to promote healthy snack consumption among children might be to highlight the variety (and in particular, the deep-level variety) present within the snack. In contrast, to discourage unhealthy snack consumption, consumers may be better off disguising variety by drawing attention to the ways in which food items are similar.