EIRP Proceedings, Vol 12 (2017)

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to highlight several important marketing research findings around the concept of self-efficacy and draw from them lessons for the individuals and managers that could enhance their task performance as well as that of the people they are managing or working with. Prior research shows that changing certain behaviors or enabling a desired performance constitutes important interdisciplinary issues with practical impact at economic, social and individual level. Many of the models used to understand and predict consumer behavior propose that intention alone poorly predicts performance of a behavior and is needed a certain amount of control, abilities or skills. The concept of self-efficacy is particularly interesting in understanding human performance (or the lack of it) due to its context specificity, its importance on actual performance and its flexibility, as individuals can easily improve on it. The current results picture sometimes self-efficacy as a mediating variable for performance, some other times as a moderating factor in tackling constraints on behavior. The implications of the research on self-efficacy are relevant for managers as well as for the individuals themselves. The value of these findings is that, in spite of some diverging perspectives in behavior modelling, the marketing research studies highlight important ways in which individuals could use the concept of self-efficacy in improving their performance, through awareness.