The Influence of Money on Goal Pursuit and Decision-Making: Understanding Money's Unique Impact on Goal Pursuit

Previous research suggests that activating concepts of money and wealth can increase motivation to achieve personal goals. In this dissertation, I investigate how money affects pursuit of important personal goals, and how this motivation may be affected by goal attainability. In eight studies, I show that priming concepts of money and wealth leads individuals to pursue important personal goals to a greater degree than control groups, but only when a goal is more attainable. In contrast, when a goal is less attainable, those primed with money will be less likely to work towards goals relative to control groups. Furthermore, I examine why money may have a detrimental effect on motivation when individuals are faced with less attainable but important goals, and argue those primed with money become more concerned with maintaining a sense of efficacy, and thus disengage from pursuit when success is less certain. Thus, this research identifies the needs made salient by activating money-"validating one's abilities. Finally, I show the relevance of these findings for consumer behavior, and discuss the additional implications of this work, as well as future research directions.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Business, Marketing

Department dc:contributor.department

Marketing

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Moran, Nora

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Herr, Paul Michael

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Bagchi, Rajesh
• Nakamoto, Kent
• Ince, Elise C.

• money
• achievement motivation
• goal-directed behavior

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:4828

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/73352