Professor Huang’s research focuses on consumer motivation. Her work in this area has been programmatic, documenting how consumers have different concerns in different stages of goal pursuit, and thus derive motivation in very distinct ways. Professor Huang uses experiments to tightly examine causal processes, and field studies to test these findings in the real world, such as launching loyalty programs with local restaurants and conducting charity campaigns with nonprofit organizations. Her new projects examine consumer motivation in social settings, such as shared goal-pursuit groups (e.g., Weight Watchers) and pro-social behaviors (e.g., motivation behind donations).

Research Interests:

• Consumer motivation
• Self-regulation
• Social interactions in goal pursuit
• Prosocial Behaviors