Focus on Outcomes or on Effort:  The Role of Self-efficacy on Influencing Expectations

In this dissertation, I investigate how differences in the manner via which individuals pursue goals (judging effort from outcome or outcome from effort) influences expectations (effort vs. outcome). In particular, I focus on the role of self-efficacy, and show that when individuals focus on outcome...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lee, Yong Kyu
Other Authors: Marketing
Format: Others
Published: Virginia Tech 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10919/52941
Description
Summary:In this dissertation, I investigate how differences in the manner via which individuals pursue goals (judging effort from outcome or outcome from effort) influences expectations (effort vs. outcome). In particular, I focus on the role of self-efficacy, and show that when individuals focus on outcomes, they take self-efficacy into consideration when assessing how much effort is needed. However, when focusing on effort, individuals do not take self-efficacy into consideration when making judgments of outcomes. Thus, I find that irrespective of differences in self-efficacy, individuals expect similar outcomes when effort invested is the same. I report findings from six studies, and discuss theoretical and managerial implications. === Ph. D.