Consumer’s Regulatory Orientation Scale: A Preliminary Test of Its Validity (An Abstract)

Through its ability to explain and predict a great many psychological processes and behavioral choices, regulatory focus is used more and more in marketing and appears to have a promising future (Haws et al. 2010). As first defined by Higgins (1997), regulatory focus can induce strategic inclinations to either approach or avoid an outcome. Although the conceptual foundations of regulatory focus are now quite broad, none of the regulatory focus measuring tools in use today gives entirely satisfactory results. The scales developed in the English-speaking world in particular are too contextual (application to work, artificial situations, etc.) and fail to factor in all the richness of the construct. Thus, this article has tried to propose a regulatory focus measure specific to consumption in real situations and in the French context. To this end, Churchill's (1979) recommendations were followed. The proposed scale was derived from the Regulatory Focus Questionnaire compiled by Higgins et al. (2001) with the inclusion of items that came out of semi-directed interviews of 30 French consumers. It was tested, after an online study, on 753 French consumers. The scale's structure and internal validity and convergence coefficients are correct. Besides the scale per se, the second aim of this article was to characterize consumers on the basis of their stable regulatory focus according to their dietary and buying habits and behavior in their private and work lives in general. A typology revealed four groups of consumers: "ecologically responsible promotion-oriented consumers" (20 %), "insecure prevention-oriented consumers" (25 %), "prevention-oriented consumers" (26 %), and "impulsive promotion-oriented consumers" (29 %). Two groups were promotion oriented and two were prevention oriented. In particular, the promotion-oriented individuals were characterized by less risk aversion and a stronger ability to dare to undertake things than the prevention-oriented individuals, with their willingness to take initiatives being linked to their self-confidence, confidence in their choices, and adaptability. They could be an interesting target when a new product is launched. For example, the "impulsive promotion-oriented" group consumers search for pleasure in doing their food shopping and may succumb to marketing temptations (Dholakia et al. 2006). Promotional actions and in-store events must thus target this type of consumers in particular. This research shows that regulatory focus is an antecedent of consumer behaviors.