Recurring Goals and Learning: the Impact of Successful Reward Attainment on Purchase Behavior

People often strive for an identical goal (e.g., rewards offered in loyalty programs), what we refer to as recurring goals. Extant research has documented post-reward resetting i.e., a slowdown in the inter-purchase time between earning the first reward and making the first purchase toward the second reward. This research shows how consumers do not reset fully; the inter-purchase time increases after a successful completion, but it does not increase to its previous level. Partial post-reward resetting occurs because people learn about their own ability to reach the reward. Hence, successful completions increase subsequent engagements, purchase rates, and task completion.

Citation:

Joseph Nunes and Xavier Drèze (2010) ,"Recurring Goals and Learning: the Impact of Successful Reward Attainment on Purchase Behavior", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 37, eds. Margaret C. Campbell, Jeff Inman, and Rik Pieters, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 77-80 .