Exploring the Link between Intention and Behavior in Consumer Research.

In the attempts to predict or influence a change in consumer behavior, intention represents one important element and it is considered a close proxy to the behavior itself. However, there are several perspectives on the role of intention on subsequent behavior; the objective of this article is to review several perspectives on this role, starting from models frequently used in consumer research and enriching the perspectives by discussing the influence of implementation intention and the effect of intent measurement on product and brand actual buying behavior. The main findings are that intention is most frequently used in research as a stable concept in the mind of the consumers quite easy to measure, yet other perspectives suggest that intention could easily change according to the context or even under the influence of the measurement process. These competing perspectives need further exploration since the gap between behavior predicted on intentions and actual behavior is still important. The current article contributes to the literature on the conceptualization and measurement of intention and its main implications consist of insights for using the concept of intention in marketing and consumer research aimed at predicting or changing behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]