Your search

This cross-sectional study examines how age-group differences in work motivation and basic psychological needs relate to preferences between self- and wage-employment. Drawing on Self-Determination and Lifespan Development Theories, age groups are conceptualized as life-stage categories rather than birth cohorts, and motivational profiles are compared in the post-COVID US labor market. Online survey data were collected from 1,484 adult Americans across five age groups, from Gen Z to Traditionalist. Multi-group CFA for measurement invariance, ANOVA, latent mean comparisons, and latent profile analysis with distal outcome comparisons were performed. Results indicated significant, albeit small, age-group differences in employment preferences and motivational constructs. Gen Z-young adults reported relatively stronger preference for self-employment than older age-groups, whereas Gen Y (Millennials), early to mid-career, exhibited the highest autonomous motivation, the lowest amotivation, and greater satisfaction of autonomy and competence needs at work. Five distinct motivational profiles were identified from latent profile analyses; low-intensity and controlled–amotivated profiles were most strongly associated with a preference for self-employment, whereas a high-involvement yet conflicted profile showed the strongest preference for wage-employment. Younger participants, particularly Gen Z and Gen Y, were more likely to fall into globally elevated and psychologically complex profiles. Overall, the findings suggest that age-linked life stages are associated with nuanced motivational configurations that only modestly translate into employment preferences, highlighting the value of developmentally sensitive, person-centered approaches to understanding contemporary work, employment preferences, and entrepreneurial orientations.

Economic recessions reshape consumer expectations and amplify scrutiny, altering how firms’ capabilities translate into performance. This study examines how recession-driven shifts in consumer expectations intensify the vulnerability of firms with high preexisting consumer satisfaction and how their innovation choices shape the extent to which this capability becomes a liability. We argue that recessions heighten negative reactions to perceived performance deviations, making high pre-recession satisfaction—typically a strategic strength—especially vulnerable. Using data from the U.S. automobile industry spanning the 2008 financial crisis, we find that consumer satisfaction declines significantly during recession and that firms with higher preexisting satisfaction experience disproportionately larger losses. We further demonstrate that innovation strategy plays a decisive moderating role: incremental product redesigns, which preserve familiarity and signal stability, mitigate the recession penalty for high-satisfaction firms, whereas new product introductions do not offer comparable protection. The study provides a theoretical account of how economic downturns can invert the value of demand-side capabilities and identifies conditions under which incremental innovation outperforms more transformative approaches. Managerially, the findings offer guidance on how firms can align innovation portfolios with shifting consumer psychology to protect reputational assets and sustain performance during an economic disruption.

Business education is undergoing rapid transformations thanks to advancements in emerging technologies. Business school leaders are engaging in identifying approaches to revitalize business education, preparing students to succeed in a technologically advancing workplace. Primarily anchored in the concept of digital transformation, our article provides practical guidance to help business schools integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their curricula and infrastructure, benefiting students, faculty, administration, and leadership. We offer a roadmap that lays out current industry trends and articulates pertinent action items, related cost efforts, and associated benefits for business education. This article positions business schools to instill a human-AI augmentation mindset in students, faculty, staff, and leadership that prepares them to work with ever-changing technologies. Regularly revising business course curricula to stay aligned with evolving industry needs is key to providing topical content and meaningful skill development opportunities for students. We argue that these efforts directly enhance student employability and learning, better preparing students to succeed in the increasingly technology-enabled workplace. © 2026 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

This study aims to explore the relationship between four key elements of quality management: teamwork, feedback, motivational barriers, and need analysis, and their contribution to improve innovativeness in the Colombian educational context. Drawing on the concepts of control and learning in the quality management theory and using publicly available responses collected from the Colombian teachers who participated in the TALIS 2018 survey, this research study examines how teachers perceive these elements within their institutions and their potential impact on fostering innovativeness among teachers. The study adopts an empirical approach to analyze these relationships, employing a descriptive and inferential statistical framework to uncover patterns and correlations. By focusing on the school practices in Colombia, the research seeks to provide insights into how quality management practices can drive innovation in educational settings. Findings identify specific patterns in the implementation of these practices and their relationship with innovativeness among teachers, offering actionable recommendations for improving teaching strategies in education to improve quality. This study contributes to the broader understanding of management’s role in teaching and learning, offering valuable implications for policymakers and practitioners in developing countries. The novelty of this work lies in its analyses of TALIS data to assess quality management practices and their direct influence on fostering innovation.

Recent research proposes that arts-integrated teaching approaches in business education can nurture students' aesthetic sensitivity and emotional capacities, such as self-awareness and empathy. In this chapter, we examine the pedagogical possibility of art appreciation in art museums as a consciousness-raising practice, especially for the sake of cultivating business students' environmental awareness in two different contexts. We have analyzed American and Russian students' reflective essays based on their museum visits in order to explore how business students make sense of their aesthetic experiences and how art appreciation helps them to develop their sustainability mindset in a creative learning space. Through attentive viewing of the works of art, students have learned some key insights from their aesthetic appreciation at art museums. These insights not only facilitated honing their emotional skills, but also deepened their environmental awareness and heightened their sense of personal empowerment to act upon these newly acquired insights and values ensuing from art appreciation. After identifying six key themes extracted from both groups of students' essays based on their museum learning, we further discuss the pedagogical implications of contemplative art appreciation in museums as a means of contributing to more innovative and sustainable management education. © 2026 selection and editorial matter, Ekaterina Ivanova, Isabel Rimanoczy and Divya Singhal; individual chapters, the contributors.

This innovative book examines the controversial relationship between motivation and rewards from multiple theoretical and practical perspectives. It analyzes cutting-edge research on work motivation and reward management's economic and psychological roots and identifies future directions for advancement in the field. © Zheni Wang 2025.

Managers often need to stay motivated and effectively motivate others. Therefore, they should rely on evidence-based interventions to effectively motivate and self-motivate. This research investigated how self-determination theory-based interventions affect employees' motivation dynamics and motivational consequences within short time frames (i.e., within an hour, within a few weeks or months) in two empirical studies. Study one focused on assessing the effectiveness of a one-day training workshop in helping to improve managers' work motivation, basic psychological needs satisfaction/frustration, subordinates' motivation, and perceptions of managers' needs-supportive/thwarting behaviors within a few weeks. Results support the effectiveness of the training, as managers were rated by their direct subordinates as having fewer needs-thwarting behaviors and reported self-improvement in needs satisfaction and frustration six weeks after completing the training program. Study two used the mean and covariance structure analysis and tested the impact of three types of basic psychological needs-supportive/thwarting and control conditions (3 × 2 × 1 factorial design) on participants' situational motivation, vitality, and general self-efficacy for playing online word games within 30 min. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed the scalar measurement invariance, then latent group mean comparison results show consistently lower controlled motivation across the experimental conditions. During a quick online working scenario, the theory-based momentary intervention effectively changed situational extrinsic self-regulation in participants. Supplementary structural equation modeling (SEM; cross-sectional) analyses using experience samples supported the indirect dual-path model from basic needs satisfaction to vitality and general efficacy via situational motivation. We discussed the theoretical implications of the temporal properties of work motivation, the practical implications for employee training, and the limitations.

The purpose of this research is to explore the decision processes that underlie the gender gap in entrepreneurial investments. The present research explores how gender congruence with a sex-typed business opportunity influences anticipated reactions from others who may provide or withhold support and resources, how these affect the assessed probability of venture success and the amount the entrepreneur is willing to invest (WTI) in the opportunity.,A theoretical model is presented and empirically tested via path analysis. A pilot and an experimental study model explore how gender congruence influences entrepreneurial investment decisions. The experimental study uses a repeated measures design examining the experimental effects two sex-typed business opportunities crossed with participant gender (gender congruence) on anticipated others’ reactions, assessed probability of venture success and investment amount (WTI).,Gender congruence of a business opportunity influences anticipated others’ reactions, whether they will be supportive or not, of pursuing the opportunity. This in turn influences the estimated probability of success of the venture and the amount the prospective entrepreneur is willing to invest in it. These socio-cognitive decision processes reinforce the gender gap in entrepreneurship since participants anticipate less access to others’ support for gender incongruent opportunities. Although the mediational model indicates most proposed relationships and paths are invariant across genders, the exception was that women did not report higher WTI for the gender congruent venture.,The research applies the latest thinking in social psychology on gender norm violations to entrepreneurship, measuring how anticipated reactions from others are a factor in predicting estimates of venture success probability and self-investments.

This research explores the social-cognitive factors which lead both women and men to pursue ventures consistent with their gendered social identity, therefore, reinforcing the gender gap in entrepreneurship. We measured the self-assessments of individuals presented with experimentally manipulated entrepreneurial opportunities that were either consistent or inconsistent with their self-reported gender. A theoretical model derived from Social Role Theory is presented and tested. It posits that a gender match (mismatch) with the entrepreneurial opportunity results in higher (lower) reported self-efficacy, anticipated social resources, and venture desirability and lower (higher) venture risk perceptions. The experimental data are tested in a sequential mediation SEM model. We find evidence that self-efficacy and anticipated social resources mediate the effect of gender congruency on perceived risk and venture desirability. The results provide insight into the insidious barriers that play a role in reproducing a gender gap in entrepreneurial outcomes by ‘nudging’ women into lower-return ventures in less lucrative industries.

Social and behavioral science researchers who use survey data are vigilant about data quality, with an increasing emphasis on avoiding common method variance (CMV) and insufficient effort responding (IER). Each of these errors can inflate and deflate substantive relationships, and there are both a priori and post hoc means to address them. Yet, little research has investigated how both IER and CMV are affected with the use of these different procedural or statistical techniques used to address them. More specifically, if interventions to reduce IER are used, does this affect CMV in data? In an experiment conducted both in and out of the laboratory, we investigate the impact of attentiveness interventions, such as a Factual Manipulation Check (FMC) on both IER and CMV in same-source survey data. In addition to typical IER measures, we also track whether respondents play the instructional video and their mouse movement. The results show that while interventions have some impact on the level of participant attentiveness, these interventions do not appear to lead to differing levels of CMV.

In response to calls for research on the psychological mechanisms, such as perceptions and attitudes toward corporate citizenship, in promoting positive outcomes at work, this research presents a novel approach by empirically testing a calling conditioned path model from P perception of corporate CSR (P-CSR) to work engagement via meaningfulness under the theoretical framework of self-determination theory. Survey data collected from 224 corporate employees in the US were tested using the PROCESS plugin (version 4.3) in SPSS. The regression results supported the positive direct and indirect paths from employees’ P-CSR to meaningfulness and work engagement but not the conditioning effect of calling work orientation. This study’s unique findings, limitations, future research, and implications are discussed, expanding micro-CSR research and unboxing the management assumptions of employees as purposeful autonomous agents seeking consistent interpretations and authentic perceptions of organizational CSR activities during their sense-making processes. Non-confirming of the calling conditioning the path model shed light on it being a dynamic multi-dimensional and multi-level construct to be further researched. © 2024 by the authors.

Marker variables provide an efficacious means of post hoc detection of common method variance (CMV) in data. These variables are measured in the same way as substantive variables, but because they are conceptually unrelated to the variables of interest, they are believed to be a proxy for CMV. Although marker variables have demonstrated effectiveness, questions remain as to what they actually measure, and thus, why they work. This lack of knowledge prevents researchers from choosing appropriate marker variables to include in same source surveys. The purpose of this research is to determine how four different marker variables account for common rater effects which can cause CMV. A metacognitive approach is used to develop an empirical study using two samples, with a focus on the specific rater effects of mood state, transient mood, consistency motif, and illusory correlations. Findings indicate that these marker variables elicit similar respondent reactions and do not create a notable psychological separation between substantive variables. Additionally, there is evidence that respondents’ use of consistency motifs and illusory correlations influence substantive variable relations. Finally, using the confirmatory factor analysis marker technique, data from two samples indicate the presence of CMV, but not bias from CMV, indicating that the problem of artificially inflated results due to CMV may be overstated.