Search Results (28)

Grounded in motivation theory, this study examines the direct relationship between a supportive workplace environment (SWE) and employee performance (EP). The SWE has been identified into three dimensions, i.e., work recognition (WR), work motivation (WM), and career development (CD). Moreover, we focused on the mediating effect of employee engagement (EE) on the relationship between SWE and EP. A quantitative research method was used, and data were collected through a questionnaire survey. Data were collected from 349 respondents. The target population were the senior managers, middle managers, and administrative staff working in the semi-government organizations based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) software version 4.0. The results indicate that in the direct relationship, workplace recognition, workplace motivation, and career development are positively connected with EP. Similarly, the findings show that employee engagement positively mediates between an SWE (work recognition, work motivation, and career development) and EP. This study suggests that managers can establish practices acknowledging and appreciating employee contributions, leading to increased motivation and improved performance. Creating a work environment that fosters work motivation by addressing employees’ physical and safety, social, and egoistic needs can further enhance employee engagement and performance. The study highlights the significant role of work recognition, work motivation, career development, and employee engagement in influencing employee performance. This study also recommends some practical implications for the semi-governmental organizations. First, it was suggested that organizations create a workplace environment in which employees feel appreciated, valued, and happy. Second, the organizations introduce the employee engagement culture at the department level as well as at the organizational level. Third, the organizations also introduce flexible work schedules for middle-level and administrative staff. Finally, Saudi organizations recognize the output of their employees and provide them with monetary incentives. Full article

Addressing the pressing global challenge of environmental sustainability, this study investigates novel pathways through which egoistic motivations—specifically personal health benefits, economic advantages, and perceived social status—influence green purchasing behavior among Chinese consumers. Employing an integrated approach that combines the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and self-identity theory (SIT), the research analyzes data from 361 Chinese consumers using advanced statistical techniques, including structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings reveal unique insights: personal health benefits and economic advantages emerge as significant drivers of green purchasing behavior, while perceived social status exerts an indirect effect through symbolic benefits. This study breaks new ground by demonstrating the dual mediating role of symbolic and functional benefits in linking egoistic motivations to green purchasing behavior. The results underscore the importance of developing marketing strategies that highlight personal health and economic savings, complemented by symbolic benefits, to effectively promote green products. Policymakers are encouraged to incorporate these nuanced motivations when designing incentives and regulations to enhance sustainable consumption practices. Full article

Ethical management is key to ensuring organizational sustainability, through resources such as autonomy or self-efficacy. However, economic and social uncertainty occasionally leads to adaptive responses that prioritize profit as the primary interest, blurring the integrating role of ethical leadership. There are a number of studies that support this reality in a virtual work environment. This sector-specific and cross-sectional research explores how ethical leadership influences self-efficacy among teleworkers, through active commitment to job autonomy, and how an egoistic climate hinders this influence. The analysis is quantitative and correlational, and the sample includes 448 teleworkers. A model of conditional indirect effects, including both a mediation process and a moderation process, is used. The results support that ethical leadership enhances followers’ self-efficacy through a redistribution of responsibilities, which increases the perception of autonomy. However, when ethical leadership coincides with a climate that has opposing interests, such as an egoistic climate, ethical leadership is unable to counteract it, and its effect on self-efficacy gradually diminishes. The benefits of this management style are widely known, but it is crucial to understand under what circumstances it loses efficacy. This research presents a new theoretical model that contributes to the existing literature on ethical leadership. Lastly, organizations that embrace ethical leadership can avoid the emergence of ethical climates disconnected from collective benefit, such as those characterized by selfishness, which hinder prosocial motivation. In this context, ethical leadership fosters the development of high-quality interpersonal relationships with followers, which are considered essential for creating an environment conducive to group learning. Consequently, change management in organizations necessitates the adoption of an ethical system that enhances self-efficacy through moral principles, rather than relying solely on individualistic aspects. Full article

The study explored the relationship between motivations and attitudes for purchasing certified organic food and the socio-economic characteristics of consumers. The research involved 1020 Polish respondents, using in-depth interviews with a structured electronic questionnaire. Participants were selected through non-random, purposive sampling, selecting only consumers of organic food. The findings revealed that altruistic-egoistic motives are prevalent among consumers with higher food expenditure, particularly on organic products. Three main categories of organic food consumers’ attitudes were identified: pro-environmental, driven by concerns for sustainability and environmental protection; pro-health, centered on personal and family health and food safety; and pro-wellbeing, focusing on personal satisfaction, emotional wellbeing, and ethical considerations. Women were more likely to prioritize pro-health attitudes, reflecting a focus on personal and family health. Additionally, higher household income was linked to stronger pro-environmental and pro-health purchasing attitudes. This study contributes to consumer behavior theory and practical applications by offering a framework that integrates altruistic-egoistic and hedonic motives, as well as pro-environmental, pro-health, and hedonic attitudes, illustrating their roles in shaping organic food purchasing decisions and highlighting the interplay between these motivations and socio-economic characteristics. Full article

Fairness-related decision-making often involves a conflict between egoistic and prosocial motives. Previous research based on Terror Management Theory (TMT) indicates that mortality salience can promote both selfish and prosocial behaviors, leaving its effect on fairness-related decision-making uncertain. This study integrates TMT with the strength model of self-control to investigate the effects of mortality salience on fairness-related decision-making and to examine the moderating role of dispositional self-control. Participants were primed with either mortality salience or negative affect and then asked to make a series of binary choices (equal allocation vs. unequal allocation favoring themselves) to distribute monetary resources. In both studies, mortality salience heightened selfish tendencies, leading to less equitable monetary allocation. Study 2 further revealed that this effect occurred among participants with low, but not high, self-control. These findings indicate that mortality salience promotes selfishness and inequitable monetary allocation, but that self-control can buffer these effects. Full article

Human blood is one of the most valuable and irreplaceable goods in modern medicine. Although its necessity increases daily, one of the most significant challenges we have to overcome is a scarcity of willing blood donors. Volunteer motives and attitudes have been studied for decades, but it is now considered vital to grasp the many aspects that will increase the effectiveness of attracting new blood donors. This study focuses on the impact of emotional arousal produced by advertising messages, as well as the determining role of altruistic and egoistic incentives in deciding behavior. We also incorporated the element of personality to investigate how personality traits influence behavioral intention to donate blood. To this end, a quantitative non-experimental correlational 2 × 2 experimental design (positive vs. negative emotional appeal; altruistic vs. egoistic message) was implemented with the participation of 462 respondents who were shown a total of 12 advertisements (ads) promoting blood donation. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling, with a focus on the direct impacts on donation intentions, the role of emotional arousals and attitude towards the ads as mediators and the moderating effect of the message. The empirical results of our hypotheses revealed that only Honesty–Humility had a strong direct impact on behavioral intention to donate, while Emotionality and Agreeableness did not have any direct effect. On the other hand, attitudes towards advertisements significantly and directly influenced positive and negative emotional arousals, respectively. Furthermore, if we consider these two variables alone, they can be found to exert a direct impact on BI. Mediation analysis showed that attitudes towards the advertisements and emotional arousals partially mediated the relation between Honesty-Humility and Behavioral Intention, thus confirming partial mediation. With respect to Emotionality and Agreeableness, mediation was found to be full since these factors only affected BI through a mediated path, which confirmed full mediation. Furthermore, the moderation analysis highlighted that the type of message (altruistic vs. egoistic) significantly moderated the relationship between both emotional arousals and BI. In particular, positive emotional arousal’s influence is strengthened when it is aligned with altruistic messages, while negative emotional arousal’s influence is weakened if it follows an altruistic message. These findings illustrate that using positive emotions will be more beneficial for increasing people’s donation intentions than bringing negative ones, which implies that message framing has a hidden impact on donation decisions. Full article

Blood donation heavily depends on voluntary involvement, but the problem of motivating and retaining potential blood donors remains. Understanding the personality traits of donors can assist in this case, bridging communication gaps and increasing participation and retention. To this end, an eye-tracking experiment was designed to examine the viewing behavior of 75 participants as they viewed various blood donation-related advertisements. The purpose of these stimuli was to elicit various types of emotions (positive/negative) and message framings (altruistic/egoistic) to investigate cognitive reactions that arise from donating blood using eye-tracking parameters such as the fixation duration, fixation count, saccade duration, and saccade amplitude. The results indicated significant differences among the eye-tracking metrics, suggesting that visual engagement varies considerably in response to different types of advertisements. The fixation duration also revealed substantial differences in emotions, logo types, and emotional arousal, suggesting that the nature of stimuli can affect how viewers disperse their attention. The saccade amplitude and saccade duration were also affected by the message framings, thus indicating their relevance to eye movement behavior. Generalised linear models (GLMs) showed significant influences of personality trait effects on eye-tracking metrics, including a negative association between honesty–humility and fixation duration and a positive link between openness and both the saccade duration and fixation count. These results indicate that personality traits can significantly impact visual attention processes. The present study broadens the current research frontier by employing machine learning techniques on the collected eye-tracking data to identify personality traits that can influence donation decisions and experiences. Participants’ eye movements were analysed to categorize their dominant personality traits using hierarchical clustering, while machine learning algorithms, including Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest, and k-Nearest Neighbours (KNN), were employed to predict personality traits. Among the models, SVM and KNN exhibited high accuracy (86.67%), while Random Forest scored considerably lower (66.67%). This investigation reveals that computational models can infer personality traits from eye movements, which shows great potential for psychological profiling and human–computer interaction. This study integrates psychology research and machine learning, paving the way for further studies on personality assessment by eye tracking. Full article

Identified as an increasingly pivotal aspect, the benevolent extra-role characteristic of community citizenship behavior contributes to destination development efficiency and social cohesion. Based on the egoistic–altruistic motivation framework, this study investigated three motivations that propel residents to exercise community citizenship behaviors in a positive social contact context, namely self-focused, other-focused, and place-focused motivation. A conceptual model combined with positive contact, personal benefit, sympathetic understanding, place identity, and community citizenship behavior was developed and tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) through data from 366 residents in Kaifeng, China. The findings showed that of the three motivations for community citizenship behaviors, place identity contributed the most, and personal benefits failed to predict community citizenship behaviors. Furthermore, sympathetic understanding with tourists was most fostered by residents from the perception of positive contact with tourists. These findings offer a novel theoretical framework for scholarly investigation and provide practical insights for tourism managers regarding strategies to influence residents’ community citizenship behavior. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on customer behavior. A transition from traditional to environmentally friendly purchasing has been observed in the buying- and consuming-goods setting. Our research sought to discover the factors that influence customers’ conscious green purchasing behavior (GPB), even though these factors had not been extensively studied before. Additionally, it investigated how COVID-19 has impacted consumers’ conscious GPB. Drawing upon the S–O–R model, we developed an integrated model to understand factors affecting conscious GPB. A total of 884 responses were gathered and analyzed by employing the structural equation modeling technique. Our study collected data from consumers in Saudi Arabia. The findings indicate that media and peer influence have a significant effect on activating both altruistic and egoistic drives, whereas family influence was shown to be insignificant. The correlations between media exposure and peer influence were significantly mediated by altruistic and egoistic motivations. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a beneficial influence on the formation process of conscious GPB. The results suggest that peers have a greater impact on conscious GPB through multiple motives, as compared to the influence of media. The findings of this examination provide several meaningful theoretical and managerial implications for marketers in the green consumption setting. Full article

This two-part research study presents the development, validation, and assessment of a measurement scale designed to evaluate the positive consequences of pro-environmental behavior. Study 1 successfully constructed a scale with two factors: positive consequences for self (PCS) and positive consequences for the environment (PCE). Data collected from a diverse sample in the USA was analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, establishing the scale’s reliability and construct validity. In Study 2, the nomological validity of the scale was examined, revealing significant relationships between values, positive consequences, anticipated positive emotions, and intentions to purchase pro-environmental products. Notably, biospheric and egoistic values were associated with different aspects of positive consequences, indicating the multifaceted nature of motivation for pro-environmental actions. Positive emotions mediated the impact of values and consequences on purchasing intentions. These findings provide valuable insights into the decision-making processes behind eco-friendly product purchases and contribute to understanding pro-environmental behavior. Future research can build on these findings to promote sustainable consumption in diverse contexts. Full article

Corporate donation is an important business strategy, but not all donations can yield the expected positive outcomes. Thus, it is urgent to know what donation strategies firms should use to obtain positive responses from different stakeholders. By conducting two experimental studies, we explore which donation frequency strategy, one-time or multiple-time donations, drives more positive investor responses and the difference in the mediating roles of altruistic/egoistic bidirectional motive attributions. The results show that for donation projects supporting ongoing causes, a multiple-time strategy leads to investors having more positive judgments of a firm’s future earnings prospects and higher investment desirability rather than a one-time strategy because it induces more altruistic attributions. Although investors make both altruistic and egoistic attributions for both strategies, only the mediating role of altruistic attribution exists, whereas that of egoistic attribution does not. Our research contributes to the study of corporate donation strategies and corporate social responsibility (including corporate donation) motive attribution, providing valuable insights for academic research, corporate decision makers, and stakeholders invested in responsible business practices. Full article

One of the more well-known objections to Kierkegaard’s moral philosophy is that he presents a view of moral life that is self-absorbed almost to the point of solipsism, focused on the subject’s own moral status rather than acting from responsiveness to others. Kierkegaard commentators have gone to great lengths to debunk such readings, to demonstrate that Kierkegaard is indeed a far more other-oriented ethicist than such critiques would suggest. At the same time, many—though not all—commentators have come to read Kierkegaard as a Christian virtue ethicist. Yet virtue ethics itself has been objected to on the grounds that it is (1) self-effacing (it requires us to act for reasons or from motives other than those virtue ethics itself endorses), (2) egoistic (it serves the benefit of the agent themselves), and (3) self-absorbed (it causes the agent to focus on themselves rather than others). This paper considers whether and how these objections might apply to Kierkegaard, and argues that his moral psychology has specific resources for answering these objections in distinctive ways. Full article

This paper investigates university students’ motivations in nature park conservation, an area that has received limited research attention compared to other pro-environmental behaviours. By formulating a set of research hypotheses, an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour is employed to examine the determinants of university students’ intentions to engage in nature park conservation. Structural equation modelling is conducted using survey data collected from university students in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Italy. The results show that attitudes, perceived behavioural control, and personal moral norms directly and positively influence university students’ intentions to undertake nature park preservation actions. Subjective norms indirectly influence behavioural intentions through attitudes, perceived behavioural control, and personal moral norms. Moreover, the findings reveal that university students with nature-oriented altruistic values exhibit a higher propensity for nature park conservation compared to their more egoistic peers. These findings have important implications for park management institutions, suggesting the need to increase awareness among young people about their potential role in preserving the environmental quality of nature parks. Collaboration between universities and nature park institutions is also crucial in providing young individuals with the necessary skills to participate in decision-making processes aligned with the principles of sustainable development. Full article

Buying products made from recycled materials is an important way to support sustainability, especially in the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) context. Because these are the products that make up a very large part of consumer spending, it is very important to encourage consumers to buy them when they are made from recycled materials. Therefore, this research aimed to determine the relationship between income, egoistic and altruistic motives, attitude toward FMCG products from recycled material, and intention to buy them. To reach the research aim, questionnaire research was applied and structural equation modeling was carried out to analyze the research results. Based on the analysis of research results, income negatively influenced egoistic motives regarding buying recycled FMCG. Moreover, egoistic motives influenced attitude but did not directly or indirectly influence intention. Altruistic motives were not influenced by income but directly influenced attitude and intention to buy FMCG from recycled materials. When communicating about the benefits of recycled FMCG, altruistic motives should be highlighted, including rationalization of these aspects with specific calculations supporting these statements. Based on research results, such communication could facilitate the highest possibility of developing a sustainable FMCG market from recycled materials. Full article

Nowadays, green consumerism is a global trend in the era of the 21st century, prompting businesses to become more environmentally conscious and to build a robust green product range to meet the demands of new customers. This tendency has been aided by social media, which has influenced customers’ buying intentions to be more ecologically responsible. The current study investigates the effects of web-based media on motivation, i.e., egotism and altruism and, subsequently, its effect on the intention of green buying. This paper also attempts to assess the impact of subjective norms on the intention of green buying and, subsequently, its effect on green purchase behavior by incorporating the construct EWOM. Administering the structured questionnaire, 362 young Indian customers’ responses were collected. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach was applied to test the suggested conceptual model based on empirical research. The findings point to the significance of social media in terms of altruistic motivation, egoistic motivation, and subjective norms, s well as the job of these components as predecessors of green purchasing intention and, subsequently, purchase behavior. The findings also demonstrate the impact of EWOM in influencing buying decisions. The findings of this paper demonstrates that social media, as a well spring of information, contribute pivotal ingredients in the establishment of consumer motivation. These consumer motivations with subjective norms play an essential role in positive green purchase intention. Green buying intention and EWOM had a favorable influence on buying behavior, according to the findings. The findings are important for marketers who would like to improve their social media communication tactics in order to raise customer motivation and buying intention, as well as buying behavior, for green products. Full article