Moderators of the self-congruity effect on consumer decision-making: A pre-registered study protocol for an updated meta-analysis

The self-congruity effect is of important managerial importance influencing brand attitudes and purchase behavior, thus generating a sustainable competitive advantage for brands and their products (Aguirre-Rodriguez, Bosnjak, & Sirgy, 2012; Beerli, Meneses, & Gil, 2007; Branaghan & Hildebrand, 2011; Sirgy, 1982; Sirgy et al., 1997). In a previous meta-analysis, Aguirre-Rodriguez et al. (2012) have confirmed the self-congruity effect and several moderators influencing the strength of the relation between self-congruity and consumer decision-making. The underlying meta-analysis extends the previous meta-analysis by including recent data (i.e., those published between 2011 and 2019) and using selected moderators based on the current state of research (Sirgy, Lee, & Yu, 2016). From the previous study, the meta-analysis considers the product stimulus abstraction, the involvement with decision making and the impression formation process, and the interactions impression formation process x involvement with decision making, product stimulus abstraction x impression formation process and product stimulus abstraction x involvement with decision making from the previous study. Additional moderators are involvement with product class, product knowledge, direct vs indirect measure, and the interactions among the moderator pairs cultural setting x self-motive socialness, product conspicuousness x self-motive socialness and response mode x enhancement motive. other