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Die vorliegende Arbeit setzt sich mit einer besonderen Form der Implementierung
eines Systems des Wissensmanagements im Unternehmen auseinander.
Über den Verlauf von mehr als zwei Jahren wurde die Einführung eines Wissensmanagements
in einem spezifischen Unternehmen beobachtet. Eine Besonderheit
lag im vom beobachteten Unternehmen gewählten Ansatz, der sich
im Wesentlichen aus dem Gedankengut des Systemischen Wissensmanagements,
der Ansätze der Knowledge Networks und der Wissenskooperation sowie
Axiomen der systemischen Organisationsberatung speiste.
Das Unternehmen hatte sich gegen eine top-down gesteuerte Einführung entschieden.
Sein Vorgehen basierte vielmehr auf der Perturbation des Systems
der Organisation zur Stimulierung des Entstehens von Wissenskooperation und
Wissensnetzwerken. So sollten schlussendlich die Vorteile eines optimierten
Umgangs mit Wissen sichtbar und spürbar werden. Dieser wahrnehmbare Nutzen
sollte dann in die Begründung von Projekten und Aktivitäten zur tatsächlichen
Verbesserung des Umgangs mit Wissen münden. Mit dem Ziel, Einblick in
die inneren Mechanismen des Systems der Organisation zu bekommen, beobachtete
der Forscher, welche Form eines Wissensmanagements sich so bilden
würde, und ob sich darüber hinaus auf diese Weise ein steuerbares Konstrukt
eines Wissensmanagements etablieren lassen würde.
Diese Untersuchung gibt Aufschluss darüber, wie eine Organisation mit etablierten
Strukturen und eingeübten Prozessen auf Interventionen reagiert, die
darauf abzielen, sie zu einer Veränderung in ihrem Umgang mit Wissen zu bewegen.
Ferner wird der so beschrittene Weg der Implementierung eines Systems
des Wissensmanagements evaluiert.
Being a next generation member in an enterprising family is accompanied by a central question: What is my role within the enterprising family and why? Taking a unified systems perspective, this dissertation thesis focuses on the next generation in enterprising families and their entrepreneurial roles within the orchestration of three elements: the individual, the family and the business. Taking into account that those three elements constantly influence each other and change over time, this dissertation thesis introduces a more holistic understanding of the next generation in enterprising families. Using a multiple-role approach conceding that the next generation can have more roles within the enterprising family next to being the successor, this dissertation thesis encompasses three studies on overall 413 next generation members focusing on their entrepreneurial roles within the family business and new venture context. This dissertation thesis uses different methodological (quantitative and qualitative) and theoretical approaches (family, social cognition and organizational behavior science) to address the limited knowledge about the different roles of the next generation within the enterprising family. Study 1 focuses on the family business versus new venture context and aims at understanding how the intentions and actions of entrepreneurial roles of the next generation emerge and develop over
time. Study 2 investigates the entrepreneurial roles of the next generation within the family
business and how it shapes their strategic decision making within this context. Study 3
researches the role of the next generation as a founder of an own venture, and how the
enterprising family shapes the venture creation process. By that, this dissertation thesis
contributes to: (1) obtaining a better understanding of the family side in entrepreneurship, which becomes especially well-observable from the (to date) under-researched perspective of the next generation in enterprising families, (2) creating a common understanding that the next generation can have entrepreneurial roles within the enterprising family beyond being the successor in the family business, which offers the opportunity to understand how
entrepreneurial behavior develops within life stages and life cycles of a family and how
entrepreneurship is transferred through generations, (3) emphasizing the relevance of the next generation within the family as well as the business side in investigating the potential
entrepreneurial capacity of enterprising families and their business initiatives contributing to theory building on enterprising families, and (4) providing further research aspirations
concerning the next generation and their roles in enterprising families, including ideas for future research on how to assess the entrepreneurial roles of the next generation within the enterprising family.
The global economy has gained momentum in recent years, with advances in technology and digitalization leading to shorter product life cycles, increased competition, and transformed industries. These circumstances call for the need for constant innovation. Organizations are required to act and adapt quickly to technological changes, dynamic markets, competitive threats, and rapidly altering customer needs, without losing focus of their established business. Two notions are important for organizations in this setting: (1) reaching ambidexterity and (2) structuring the front-end of innovation.
Ambidextrous companies, which own the ability to balance between innovation activities that exploit current competencies (exploitation) and those that explore new competencies (exploration), are more successful than companies which concentrate on only one of these activities (Gibson & Birkinshaw, 2004; He & Wong, 2004; Jansen, Van Den Bosch, & Volberda, 2006; Katila & Ahuja, 2002; C. Kim, Song, & Nerkar, 2012). However, both exploration and exploitation require the allocation of resources, causing a trade-off, which makes it difficult to perform the combination of both (Greve, 2007; Levinthal & March, 1993). Previous research does not focus on how organizations can adapt their innovation activities in order to reach ambidexterity (Cantarello, Martini, & Nosella, 2012; Judge & Blocker, 2008; Z. Wei, Yi, & Guo, 2014).
Managing innovations poses an increasingly daunting task for organizations, demanding different requirements regarding the innovation management process. Managing innovation through a structured innovation process facilitates the creation and planning of innovation to transform ideas into marketable products. The first stage of this process – the front-end of innovation – is of significant meaning, since activities in the front-end of innovation are strongly linked to innovation success (Dwyer & Mellor, 1991; Markham, 2013; Moenart, De Meyer, Souder, & Deschoolmeester, 1995; Reid & de Brentani, 2004). The creation of value and competitive advantage takes primarily place in the front-end of innovation, and the actual costs of mismanagement can only be discovered at later stages (Markham, 2013; Reid & de Brentani, 2004; P. Smith & Reinertsen, 1991).
A concept to foster ambidexterity and structure the front-end of innovation described mainly by practitioners are so-called innovation fields (Cooper, Edgett, & Kleinschmidt, 2004; Crawford, 1980; Hambrick & Fredrickson, 2001; Khurana & Rosenthal, 1998; Reid & de Brentani, 2004; Talke, Salomo, & Rost, 2010).
Innovation fields establish guidelines that determine search strategy, scope, depth, and locus of innovation search by setting search boundaries. Literature describes different types of applications for innovation fields such as strategic purposes, ideation, lifting synergies, technology intelligence and portfolio extension. With innovation fields, organizations (1) can structure the front-end of innovation and align corporate objectives to innovation activities and (2) have an instrument at hand to facilitate the shift of resources and to prioritize innovation activities according to the balance between exploitation and exploration, thereby fostering ambidexterity.
However, research on innovation fields is scarce, thus, the objective of this dissertation is to examine how and why perceived contextual factors influence the intended application and perceived proficiency of innovation fields in the front-end of innovation.
The theoretical foundation is based on the theory of organizational learning. A research framework is derived from acknowledged literature, focusing on (1) strategic orientation, (2) organizational context and (3) external environment as main contextual factors influencing the intended application of innovation fields. An explorative research design is followed, composed of an embedded single case study design using a mixed-methods approach. As a case, a corporate R&D division of a Germany-based company is selected.
First, a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews is conducted, followed by a quantitative survey to get a more comprehensive picture of the role of perceived contextual factors influencing intended innovation field applications and proficiency.
Based on the underlying empirical research, distinct differences regarding perceived contextual factors and their influence on intended innovation field applications and proficiency have been identified. Notably, the perceived contextual factors vary across the different types of applications for innovation fields. Overall, the strategic orientation and external environment have a strong influence on the intended innovation field applications and proficiency, while organizational context only play a minor role. Furthermore, the findings substantiate the use of different types of applications for innovation fields in the front-end of innovation.
This study contributes to theory by creating a research framework linking perceived contextual factors to intended innovation field applications and proficiency. Finally, this dissertation delivers a comprehensive description of innovation field applications. The findings enhance the existing body of knowledge regarding innovation research, specifically regarding the front-end of innovation and innovation fields as well as organizational learning. Besides the advancement of scientific knowledge, managerial implications are drawn for the application of innovation fields in a corporate context.
This thesis is an investigation into the climate change discourse in the German networked public sphere with a focus on the climate skeptic counterpublic. It focuses in particular on the hypothesis that a polarizing discourse might lead to a fragmentation of the public sphere and the formation of echo chambers. This overarching research question of this thesis, then, asks how the climate skeptic counterpublic can potentially be integrated in the German networked public sphere and to what extent. The climate change discourse in Germany serves as a suitable example since it is heavily polarized with the mainstream being convinced that dangerous anthropogenic climate change is happening while the skeptic minority rejects the idea of a global warming and / or mankind’s responsibility. In order to understand the possible integration of the skeptic counterpublic in the networked public sphere, three studies were conducted based on the integration dimensions of similarity of discourse, connectivity and collective identity.
In the first study, the German-language climate networked public sphere was mapped with a hyperlink network analysis of over 10,000 climate websites. The results show a highly polarized, almost unconnected discourse and suggest that climate skeptics could even be considered to form an echo chamber in which only climate skeptic and antagonistic messages are being shared. The second study, then, identifies several skeptic frames in the German news medias’ reporting on COP17. However, it can be concluded that climate skeptic messages are barely being included in the media coverage thus showing that skeptics are also excluded in the mass media. In the third study, 10,262 online comments of ten comment sections (four news sites, two climate skeptic blogs, two climate activist blogs, two climate science blogs) were analyzed to look at if and how connected skeptics are on the different sites. The results show that skeptics are highly active in the comment sections and account for over 40 % of the relevant comments. It is further shown that even though there is discussion between mainstream and counterpublic, users from the mainstream react highly critical to skeptic messages.
In sum, this thesis shows that albeit the climate skeptic counterpublic is structurally only barely connected to the mainstream as well as excluded from the mass media, skeptics are very vocal and foster discussions over climate change and climate science. These discussions, even though characterized by the clash of two opposing beliefs, are a sign of integration and show that the fear of an echo chamber that is disconnected from other opinions and, indeed, society is premature.
This study was designed to answer the question of whether resource performance depends more on good governance or rather on effective institutional structures. The specific aim is to make clear the extent to which good governance and institutions promote small scale gold mining businesses, to explain empirically the nature of human rights challenges in the small-scale mining (SSM) industry from the perspective of mining mangers, to investigate the nature, determinants, and frequency of conflicts associated with SSM, and to discuss the challenges facing SSM operations and ways to confront them. The findings show that, in the context of efforts to spur economic development, the exploitation of mineral resources has the potential to bring about far-reaching environmental and social changes. These changes can create opportunities, but they also represent a business risk for corporations and a social risk for communities. There is as a consequence a pressing need to investigate recent threats to mineral resource exploration relating to economic development, peace and stability, and the survival of private businesses. These threats are particularly serious for less-developed countries that are net exporters of natural resources. Such countries could use these resources to drive economic development and decrease their dependence on aid from developed countries. In most of them, however, owing to a lack of strong institutions, mismanagement of mineral and other natural resources has fueled social conflict without producing meaningful development.
In addition, there is often the perception in countries such as Ghana, which is the subject of this study, that mining, whatever its benefits, is responsible for significant environmental damage and for Human Rights Adverse Impacts (HRAI), including child labor and exploitation, displacement of rural households, and violence. For these reasons, investment in the mining sector and associated businesses has often faced stiff resistance. Given the right governmental institutions, small-scale gold mining and associated activities can prove beneficial to and be accepted by a society and can attract further investment; under the wrong circumstances, this type of mining can impact society negatively. At the very least, when SSM is poorly managed, the anticipated benefits to the business community and the broader society are unlikely to materialize. The evidence from large-scale mining, particularly in the wake of Ghana’s civil war, indicates a correlation between mineral resources and conflict. Less is known about the nature, frequency, and causes of conflicts that afflict households in Ghana’s artisanal mining communities. There is accordingly a need for research into ways to prevent human rights violations and to create share value in the SSM sector through social development and renewed incentives for investment in it.
This thesis represents an attempt to fill this need by exploring whether the capacity of resources—in this case, gold mining—to spur economic development—here, by creating competitive SSM businesses, improving livelihoods, or reducing poverty—depends on governance structures and whether there is a correlation between SSM and conflict outside the context of civil war.
This thesis is informed by three broad insights. The first concerns the challenges facing the SSM activities that play a vital role in the Ghanaian economy. Second, there is the importance of the role played by institutions in the development of SSM amid renewed attraction of investment in the sector. Third, changing social expectations are a crucial aspect sustainable mining and the protection of human rights.
Familienunternehmen stellen weltweit die am häufigsten vorkommende Unternehmensart dar. Führung, Finanzierung und strategischen Ausrichtung spielen in vielen dieser Unternehmen nicht nur ökonomische, sondern auch familienbezogene Aspekte eine wichtige Rolle. Hieraus begründet sich, dass die Aufrechterhaltung der Kontrolle und somit die Steuerung des Familienunternehmens neben der wirtschaftlichen Nutzung für einen Familienverbund eine wichtige Rolle spielen. Wie jedoch auch in anderen Unternehmen, kann es in einem Familienunternehmen durch falsches Management, Krisenzeiten oder Finanzierungsprobleme zu Situationen kommen, in denen es der Familie nicht möglich ist, das Familienunternehmen ohne externe Unterstützung zu führen und zu kontrollieren. Gerät ein Familienunternehmen durch wirtschaftliche Schwierigkeiten in eine Situation, in der die Aufrechterhaltung der vollen Kontrolle über das eigene Unternehmen nicht mehr realisierbar ist, können für die Familie der Verkauf des Unternehmens oder die Unterstützung eines externen Eigenkapitalgebers infrage kommen. Der Wunsch, das Unternehmen über Generationen hinweg in Händen der Familie zu bewahren, scheitert oft an dem bloßen Mangel an (willigen) familieninternen Nachfolgern. Auch aus dieser Notsituation heraus kann es sich ergeben, dass der Ausstieg aus dem Familienunternehmen infrage kommt. Der Verkauf oder die Hereinnahme von Eigenkapital kann in diesen Fällen an bzw. durch einen strategischen Investor erfolgen. Möglich ist jedoch auch, einen Private Equity-Investor in das Familienunternehmen aufzunehmen.
Auf den ersten Blick haben Familienunternehmen, die in der Regel gegenüber Stakeholdern altruistisch geführt sind, und hochprofessionalisierte Private Equity-Gesellschaften oft wenig gemeinsam. Umso interessanter ist somit die Frage, welche Motive ein Private Equity-Investor verfolgt, wenn er sich an einem Familienunternehmen beteiligt oder es sogar vollständig erwirbt. Zugleich stellt sich in diesem Zusammenhang die Frage, welchen Einfluss ein institutioneller Investor auf das frühere Familienunternehmen ausübt und welche Veränderungen in einem Zielunternehmen aufgrund des –teilweise vollständigen– Wegfalls des Familieneinflusses eintreten. In diesem Zusammenhang ist insbesondere die Frage interessant, ob die Abnahme des Familieneinflusses negative Folgen für das Unternehmen hat, ob also geschlussfolgert werden kann, dass ein Unternehmen, das sich in Händen von Unternehmerfamilien befindet, effizienter wirtschaftet, oder ob das genaue Gegenteil der Fall ist. Hierdurch lassen sich zum einen Aussagen darüber treffen, welche Verbesserungspotentiale in einem Familienunternehmen bestehen, die durch einen professionellen, renditeorientierten Investor ausgenutzt werden, aber auch, welchen Mehrwert Familien in einem Unternehmen möglicherweise generieren.
Durch eine Betrachtung verschiedener Gruppen von Familienunternehmen, die sich auf Grundlage der operativen und finanziellen Situation des Zielunternehmens ergeben, sowie durch Betrachtung verschiedener Vorgehensweisen des Investors im Zuge des Buyouts, kann zudem untersucht werden, welche unterschiedlichen Motive und Auswirkungen sich aus diesen Faktoren für den Private Equity-Investor und das Familienunternehmen ergeben. Untersucht werden sowohl die Motive als auch die Entwicklungen der Zielunternehmen nach dem Buyout anhand eines hand-gesammelten Datensatzes, bestehend aus Familienunternehmen, die in den Jahren von 2000 bis 2009 einen Buyout durch einen Private Equity-Investor durchlaufen haben. Hierbei werden sowohl gesamte Jahresabschlüsse als auch Informationen zu der Zusammensetzung des Gesellschafterkreises, des Managements und eines eventuell bestehenden Kontrollgremiums zur Analyse herangezogen. Auf Grundlage dieser Daten ergibt sich ein klares Bild darüber, in welche Arten von Familienunternehmen Private Equity-Gesellschaften in Deutschland investieren und welche Auswirkungen die Buyouts auf die Zielunternehmen unter verschiedenen Bedingungen haben. Abschließend wird die Frage geklärt, welche Faktoren aus Sicht des Investors dafür entscheidend sind, dass die Transaktion erfolgreich verläuft. In Bezug auf die Investitionen von Private Equity-Gesellschaften werden in der Literatur aufgrund der deutlich höheren Verfügbarkeit vornehmlich Public-to-Private-Transaktionen analysiert und anhand dieser Theorien der Einfluss und die Motivlage von Private Equity-Gesellschaften untersucht. Diese Art der Transaktion macht im Bereich Private Equity jedoch nur einen sehr geringen Teil aus. Die Motivlage und die Auswirkungen des Investments in ein Familienunternehmen wurden aufgrund der hohen Verschwiegenheit dieses Unternehmenstyps und daraus folgenden geringen Verfügbarkeit an empirisch auswertbaren Daten bisher nicht untersucht. Diese Forschungslücke soll in der vorliegenden Arbeit mithilfe empirischer Analysen der Ziel-Familienunternehmen geschlossen werden.
Employees of public sector organizations serve as the backbone of democratic societies, making decisions that shape how and for whom vital public services are delivered. Public employees influence the realization of political goals and provide basic public goods as well as critical infrastructure. They are of high societal relevance as they represent the “human face of the state” and should incorporate public values to enable, serve, and protect the democratic system and the rule of law. According to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 16, effective public institutions must pay attention to employees as their most critical resource.
The public sector––the largest or among the largest employers in most countries––faces a looming human resource crisis. Public employers face the need to replace a wave of baby boomers retiring and a decline in the number of people interested in working in the public sector. The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the shortage of professionals and leaders in the example of critical infrastructure such as public health authorities, hospitals, and social services.
As a major field of research and practice, public human resource management (HRM) aims to understand these challenges and develop adequate coping strategies. However, the field faces relevant research gaps. Among other factors, the current scientific understanding is limited regarding the role of differences amongst organizational types in the public sector. Although previous research indicates the role of organizational goals and publicness dimensions for human resource practices in general, there is a lack of understanding to what extent the effects of motivation and pay dispersion differ, for example, between public administrations and state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
The goal of this dissertation is to enhance the theoretical understanding of the role of motivation and pay dispersion for performance and recruitment focusing on differences amongst organizational types in the public sector, to derive theoretical perspectives on an integrated steering of human resources of public administration and SOEs.
Overall, this dissertation highlights three contributions of the four included articles. First, it shows the important conceptual role of SOEs as research objects and offers approaches to further integrate SOEs as research objects in public HRM, taking into account the different institutional arrangements of public service provision, as organizational goals and publicness can be crucial and insightful determinants for motivation and pay dispersion. Second, the presented work offers new theoretical approaches and field-experimental insights for the under-researched public sector recruitment literature. Third, it derives theoretical perspectives on an integrated steering of human resources of public administration and SOEs as well as implications for future research on motivation and pay dispersion as major factors for performance and recruitment in public sector organizations.
This dissertation is dedicated to extending scholarly understanding of organizational transformation in the context of disruptive change. For this purpose, three independent studies explore both organizational- and individual-level aspects of organizational transformation. In doing so, this dissertation integrates two literature streams – disruptive innovation theory and organizational identity. Study 1 lays the ground by providing a descriptive, thematic analysis of organizational transformation induced by digital innovations and technologies. The paper systematically reviews 58 articles to critically assesses where, how and by whom research on digital transformation is conducted and how it unfolds at the organizational level. Studies 2 and 3 are located at the intersection of disruptive innovation adoption and organizational identity in the context of incumbent firms. Both studies apply an inductive, field-based single case design and primarily build on qualitative data gathered from 39 (Study 2) and 35 (Study 3) semistructured personal interviews at a major German car manufacturer. Study 2 examines how organizational identity change unfolds in an incumbent attempting to adopt multiple different disruptions at the same time, while Study 3 moves more towards the individual-level and attempts to understand how and why organizational members respond heterogeneously to disruption. Overall, this dissertation contributes in the following ways: (1) Studies 1 and 2 extend the conceptual- and organizational-level knowledge of disruptive innovation adoption during organizational transformation. In particular, Study 2 shows that different drivers of identity-induced organizational transformation become observable, dependent on the nature of a disruption, (2) Studies 2 and 3 extend the individual-level knowledge of organizational member’s attitudes and behavior during identity-threatening organizational transformation. For this purpose, Study 3 develops a typology which gives evidence for the existence of three types of member’s sensitivities and shows that identity and knowledge function as cognitive frames of reference to interpret change, whereas culture is seen as a contextual factor to support the transformation of identity and knowledge.
Vor dem Hintergrund des Klimawandels, dessen Auswirkungen von Jahr zu Jahr deutlicher zu spüren sind, nimmt die Relevanz des nachhaltigen Handelns in unserer Gesellschaft merklich zu (Seifi et al.2012). Die Einführung einer sogenannten „Green Economy“, um dem Klimawandel entgegenwirken zu können, gewinnt daher zunehmend an Bedeutung (BMBF 2014). Dennoch lassen sich zahlreiche Hürden beim Versuch erkennen, zukünftige Generationen vor den Auswirkungen des aktuellen Umweltverhaltens zu schützen. Auf der einen Seite sind die Produktion und der Konsum von Gütern und Dienstleistungen wichtige Treiber des wirtschaftlichen Wohlstandes (Belz 2005). Die Produktion dieser Güter ist jedoch abhängig von der Natur und dem ökologischen Kreislauf und kann daher auf der anderen Seite gleichzeitig zu sozialen und umweltbezogenen Problemen führen (Nölting 2010, Belz 2005). Zwar gibt es bereits einige Fortschritte und Initiativen für eine nachhaltige Produktion sowie einen nachhaltigen Konsum wie zum Beispiel erneuerbare Energien, Gemeinschaftskonsum oder geltende Umweltstandards, die Entwicklung eines nachhaltigen Konsumverhaltens steht jedoch noch am Anfang (World Economic Forum 2012, Grunwald und Kopfmüller 2006). Die Herausforderungen bezogen auf das Konsumentenverhalten beim Erwerb von nachhaltigen Produkten wurde bisher hauptsächlich aus der Sicht der Konsumenten betrachtet und analysiert. Dazu wurden die Einflüsse unterschiedlicher Determinanten auf die Kaufabsicht und das Kaufverhalten untersucht. Eine Betrachtung der aktuellen Herausforderungen aus Sicht der Unternehmen und eine Gegenüberstellung der Sichtweise der Konsumenten und der der Unternehmen fehlten hingegen bisher in den wissenschaftlicher Untersuchungen. Die vorliegende Thesis betrachtet daher beide Sichtweisen, die zusammen die sogenannte ‚Zielgruppenperspektive‘ innerhalb dieser Arbeit bilden. Neben der Zielgruppenperspektive beinhaltet die vorliegende Thesis die sogenannte ‚Branchenperspektive‘. Da Nachhaltigkeit ein weitumfassendes Thema ist, werden in dieser Arbeit die Branchenschwerpunkte ‚Bio-Lebensmittel‘ und ‚Nachhaltige Mode‘ als Nachhaltigkeitsbeispiele untersucht. Bezogen auf die aktuellen Herausforderungen des nachhaltigen Konsums der vorliegenden Thesis wird das übergeordnete Ziel angestrebt, neue Ansatzpunkte zur Steigerung und Verbesserung des nachhaltigen Handels für Konsumenten und Unternehmen zu identifizieren.
People face economic decisions on a daily basis. Quite often, these decisions involve high stakes and some degree of personal risk, as choices produce real consequences that set the course for future actions. Although decades of decision research in the intersection of psychology, behavioral economics, and neuroscience have much advanced our knowledge about the psychological underpinnings of economic decisions, several academic disputes remain unsettled. Indeed, surprisingly little is known about the role of motivation and volition in guiding economic decisions. Certainly, people’s motives, goals, and their expectations of attractive rewards are important drivers of decision making. Yet, motivation and volition cannot be reduced to goals and incentives. The cognitive mechanisms underlying economic decisions are rather complex, and motivation and volition may impact decisions at the level of these cognitive processes.
This dissertation considers the role of motivation and volition in economic decisions by examining the impact of experimentally induced motivational and volitional states of mind on economic choices and decision processes. Using different methods and decision making paradigms, four experiments provide novel evidence that informs the ongoing debates in motivation research, decision science, and psychophysiology. In short, Experiments 1a and 1b explore the possibility of interactive effects between motivation, volition, and financial incentives in determining economic performance. Moving on to the level of decision processes, Experiment 2 examines the impact of motivation and volition on decision processes under risk. Decision times, eye movements, and pupil dilations provide process measures of cognitive effort, pre-decisional information search, and affective arousal, respectively. Finally, Experiment 3 investigates how particular decision attributes relate to affective and motivational processes in decisions under risk.
The findings of the present dissertation can be summarized in terms of four main conclusions. First, incentives are effective for improving economic performance when the payment of attractive monetary rewards is contingent on performance. Yet, higher incentives do not further improve performance. Second, the experimental manipulation of motivational and volitional mindsets does not directly affect choices, but notably impacts decision processes. Third, the influence of motivation and volition on economic decisions appears to depend on the appropriate incentivization of the task at hand. Fourth, risky choice attributes that entail no gain at all, i.e., zero-outcomes, elicit high levels of affective arousal and motivational avoidance tendencies that guide selective attention and decision making in the lottery choice paradigm. The implications of these findings are discussed for theory development in motivation research and decision science, as well as in terms of their practical implications for decision making in managerial contexts and other high-stakes decision environments.
