Fully co-existing and co-occurring emotional tendencies across the consumer decision context in trend-driven industries

Trend-driven environments change rapidly, and consumers' decision responses may fluctuate. These fluctuations may be shaped by emotional directions underpinned by different motivational bases: social pressure, self-endorsed values, or both. Instead of focusing on these fluctuations, emotional tendencies—recurring orientations—may be a more stable basis. Such tendencies, grounded in different motivational bases, may shape decision-response tendencies within individual or across all decision contexts. This study conceptualises Fear of Missing Out on Trending Films (FOMO-TF) and Joy of Missing Out on Trending Films (JOMO-TF) as emotional tendencies. Consumer responses across five Consumer Decision-Making Process contexts are conceptualised as decision-response tendencies (DRTs). Data from 418 Thai consumers were analysed using a four-approach multi-method design structured by two conceptual models. It investigates whether each tendency influences individual DRTs and spans DRT pathways. It examines whether co-existing tendencies jointly maintain direction and co-occurring profiles retain their relative ordering across all DRTs. Both emotional tendencies positively influenced every individual DRT. However, FOMO-TF spanned all interconnected DRT pathways, while three positive JOMO-TF pathways fell just short of statistical significance. Thus, influence on each DRT did not necessarily span all DRT pathways. Co-occurring profiles differed mainly in intensity rather than in the mix of the two tendencies and retained relative ordering across all DRTs, despite their different motivational bases. The study introduces the Emotional Tendency Decision Framework and proposes the Process-Based Stage–Profile Strategy Guidelines (PSP) to help managers reduce complexity. Stage, process, and profile strategies target individual decision contexts, interconnected pathways, and consumer profiles, respectively.