Impact of Affective-Motivational Dispositions on Competence in Sustainability Management

Abstract

Only limited evidence exists to explain competence in sustainability management. In sustainability research, especially value-related constructs are emphasized to predict sustainable behaviour. In addition, theoretical-conceptual considerations toward competence and some empirical analyses of competence measurement highlight the potential of affective-motivational dispositions to explain the performance in competence tests. Therefore, this paper measures the influence of affective-motivational dispositions toward the performance of competence in sustainability management. To measure the performance of competence in sustainability management, a simulation-based assessment is used. Based on existing findings of previous research scales toward the declarative knowledge about sustainable development, sustainability management and business administration are used as control variables. The analyses based on responses from 872 students and are done by structural equation models. Besides the declarative knowledge about sustainable development, an aversion to sustainability has a significant influence on the performance of competence in sustainability management. The motivation to act sustainably as well as interest-based constructs show no significant results.