Non-economic Motivations Research Articles

Внеэкономическая мотивация колхозного крестьянства в годы Великой Отечественной войны (на материалах Алтайского края)

Внеэкономическая мотивация колхозного крестьянства в годы Великой Отечественной войны (на материалах Алтайского края)

State-Owned Multinationals: An Emerging Market Phenomenon?

Benefitting from the publication of a new data set by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 2017, this article examines the main characteristics in the realm of state-owned multinationals, especially in terms of their geographical origin, the target countries of outward investment, and other main features of multinationals’ foreign direct investment (FDI). It finds that state-owned multinationals continue to play an important role in the world economy. Many of these multinationals are headquartered in emerging economies, confirming the reliance of these economies on multinational firms for foreign expansion strategies. There are also many state-owned multinationals headquartered in developed economies. The modalities of state intervention vary largely by country and firm. Nevertheless, in general, state-owned multinationals raise concerns about the non-economic motivations of foreign expansion.

English

Suicide terrorism remains a difficult action to rationally explain. Often, scholars rely on ideological or religious motivations to explain these seemingly irrational actions. While it seems clear that non-economic motives matter, it is also the case that economic compensation can incentivize suicide terrorism in ways that allow for more robust suicide terrorism campaigns. As such, we would expect that organizations that provide cash to suicide bombers will generate more attacks. In addition, the general economic environment plays into this in that poor economic conditions should increase the attractiveness of monetary compensation. To test our arguments, we conduct a series of statistical analyses looking at seven terrorist organizations that engaged in suicide terrorism from 2000 through 2008 and find that both high levels of economic compensation and poor economic conditions are correlated with a greater number of suicide terrorist attacks. Key words: Political economy, terrorism, compensation.

Mobility Intentions of Foreign Researchers: The Role of Non-economic Motivations

Recent contributions suggest that non-economic factors could be important motivational drivers of scientific mobility. We investigate this hypothesis in a sample of foreign researchers in Italy and Portugal, examining their willingness to leave the host country. We distinguish between economic factors, non-economic relational factors and non-economic aspirational factors. Controlling for the relevant contextual variables, we find that foreign researchers, unsatisfied with aspirational factors (e.g. level of independence, autonomy, intellectual challenge and social status), are more likely to leave their host country and move to a third country than they are to return to their countries of origin. Relational and economic factors, such as salary and benefits, do not demonstrate any additional impact.

Bribery behavior by state owned enterprises

This article extends commercial bribery literature by drawing attention to the ignored phenomenon of SOE bribery and investigates institutional deficiencies that induce SOEs to bribe fellow public officials. We suggest that under weaker institutional environments, SOE managers are likely to have noneconomic motives of managerial rent extraction while bribing for the economic purpose of organizational goal attainment. We complement previous research on commercial bribery by adding the missing component of noneconomic bribery which supplements economic motivations of bribery to determine firms’ actual bribery behavior, particularly for SOEs. Our empirical evidence shows that involvement of noneconomic motivations in SOE bribery systematically differentiates SOE bribery from extensively researched economic bribery and that institutions have a more salient impact in determining the tendency of SOE bribery.

Beyond Economics: Broadening Perspectives on Immigration to Canada

This article reviews and critiques the current immigration policies in Canada, which are increasingly focused primarily on economic considerations. Data from a sample of 182 immigrant Chinese families (including mothers, fathers, and adolescents) are used to illustrate disconnections between immigration policy and the experiences of immigrants to Canada. The current individually-oriented immigration class system does not recognize non-economic motivations for immigration among principal applicants (e.g., for children’s future prospects) or the economic contributions of accompanying spouses. We argue for the incorporation of a long-term family-based lens for creating and evaluating immigration policy, one which accounts for the sacrifices parents make for their children and the contributions to Canadian society made by this next generation of Canadians. Furthermore, we caution against adopting policies that, over time, may limit the cultural diversity of new Canadians. We argue that supporting immigrants’ ability to be bicultural promotes multiculturalism, which benefits all of Canadian society. Cet article fait la critique des politiques d’immigration actuelles au Canada, qui sont de plus en plus axés essentiellement sur des considérations économiques. Les données provenant d’un échantillon de 182 familles immigrantes chinoises (y compris les mères, les pères et les adolescents) sont utilisés pour illustrer les déconnexions entre la politique d’immigration et les expériences des immigrants au Canada. Le système de classement d’immigration actuel orienté sur l’individu ne tient pas compte des motivations non économiques de l’immigration parmi les demandeurs principaux (par exemple, pour les perspectives d’avenir des enfants) ou les contributions économiques des conjoints accompagnant. Pour la création et l’évaluation de la politique d’immigration, nous appuierions l’incorporation d’une perspective long terme basée sur la famille, une politique qui prend en compte les sacrifices des parents pour leurs enfants et les contributions à la société canadienne faite par cette prochaine génération de Canadiens. De plus, nous mettons en garde contre l’adoption de politiques qui, au fil du temps, peuvent limiter la diversité culturelle des nouveaux Canadiens. Nous soutenons que le soutien de la capacité des immigrants de devenir biculturel favorise le multiculturalisme, qui profite à toute la société canadienne.

Motivations for adopting biological control among Iranian rice farmers

While research on biological control of crop pests is quite popular, it seldom targets motivations of farmers for adopting this practice. A survey of 283 rice farmers was conducted in Mazandaran province of northern Iran to study farmers' motivations for biological control adoption as an alternative control method of Asiatic rice borer [Chilo suppressalis (Walker)] and explain potential differences in motivations among different groups of farmers. Face to face interviews were used to address farmers' motivations based on a list of motivation statements found in previous studies and modified by extension officers and farmers who had adopted biological control in the study area. Factor analysis of a motivation list with 15 items revealed four main groups of factors explaining the adoption of biological control by rice farmers; these were ‘health maintenance’, ‘economic benefit’, ‘social acceptance’, and ‘environmental protection’. Men gave high scores to motivations related to ‘economic benefit’ and ‘social acceptance’, whereas women preferred mostly motivations related to ‘health maintenance’. Well-educated farmers (e.g., some college education) preferred motivations for ‘health maintenance’ more than farmers with lower education or no education at all. Participation in extension programs was associated with preference of non-economic motivations of biological control adoption, while membership in local associations (such as rural cooperatives or producers' groups) encouraged motivations related to ‘social acceptance’. Farmers who used family labor force in their fields or farmers who perceived pesticides as harmful substances showed strong motivations primarily for ‘health maintenance’ along with ‘environmental protection’. Small area of land under cultivation and low annual farm income were strongly linked with motivations for ‘economic benefit’. Besides economic motivations, policies for the promotion of biological control adoption should embrace a wide set of farmers' motivations when developing new and properly tailored extension programs.

Left-behind children and return migration in China

Abstract This paper examines how left-behind children influence migration duration in China. We first present a simple illustrative model that incorporates economic and non-economic motives to migration duration. Using individual data from a survey carried out in Wuwei county (Anhui province) in 2008, we find that migrant parents of children in primary school tend to delay their return, a result we interpret as illustrating the need for migrant parents to accumulate money for their offspring’s education. In contrast, parental time appears substitutable by coresiding grandparents who contribute to delay the parents’ return, especially mothers, when they have children below the age of 12. JEL classification: J61, J13, C41, O53

Motivational diversity and the sense of ill-treatment back home among the UK’s migrant workers from Turkey: A cross-intersectional approach

Drawing on unstructured interviews, the present article examines the motivations behind the migration of workers from Turkey as an under-researched community in Britain. For this, a cross-intersectional approach is developed. Intersectional evidence suggests that motivations are informed by both economic and social factors. In particular, economic ambitions have become considerably variegated in recent years, but added to these are non-economic motivations within spatial, ethnic/religious and gender/sexuality domains as well as human capital considerations. These also give a dynamism to migrants’ motivations. Even so, one should go beyond intersectionality for a fuller account. A sense of ill-treatment back home occasionally turns out to be an inextricable component across both economic and non-economic motivations whilst causing prolonged stays. Unpleasant experiences reported by the majority of participants largely reflect policy deficiencies in Turkey. Addressing them could have potential implications for more sustainable migration controls by encouraging returns and easing the search for a better life abroad.

The role of social and environmental attitudes in non-market valuation: An application to the Białowieża Forest

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of non-economic motivations such as altruism and environmental concerns on social preferences and hence willingness to pay (WTP) for changes in forest management strategies in the Białowieża Forest in Poland. We used data from a discrete choice experiment (CE) with attributes describing changes in the quality of the forest and recreation. The choice experiment technique makes it possible to disentangle the effect of the trait of altruism and environmental concern with regard to different attributes and their levels. Environmental attitudes were measured using the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale, whereas the trait of altruism was determined using the Self-Reported Altruism (SRA) scale. The parameterization employed in the survey was a WTP space model. Results show that both altruism and environmental concerns have significant effects on the amount people are willing to pay for changes in forest management.

Optimal Incentives with State-Dependent Preferences

In both experimental and natural settings, incentives sometimes underperform, generating smaller effects on the targeted behaviors than would be predicted for entirely self-regarding agents. A parsimonious explanation is that incentives that appeal to self-regarding economic motives may crowd out noneconomic motives such as altruism, reciprocity, intrinsic motivation, ethical values, and other social preferences, leading to disappointing and sometimes even counterproductive incentive effects. We present evidence from behavioral experiments that crowding may take two forms: categorical (the effect on preferences depends only on the presence or absence of the incentive) or marginal (the effect depends on the extent of the incentive). We extend an earlier contribution (Bowles and Hwang, 2008) to include categorical crowding, thus providing a more general framework for the study of optimal incentives and as a result, an expanded range of situations for which the sophisticated planner will (surprisingly) make greater use of incentives when incentives crowd out social preferences than when motivational crowding is absent.

Social Issues in the Family Enterprise

In this introduction, we discuss social issue research in the management and family business literatures, focusing on ethics, corporate social responsibility, and philanthropic practices of family enterprises. Next, we introduce and highlight four articles accepted for publication. The editorial concludes by presenting future research questions at the social issues—family business interface. Our review of 35 articles, as well as those included in this Special Issue, suggest that family businesses are more attuned and attentive to social issues and stakeholders than nonfamily business. Noneconomic motivations (e.g., reputation, socioemotional wealth, and stewardship) appear particularly salient to family enterprises.

The success–failure dichotomy revisited: young adults' motives to return to their rural home region

Researchers are increasingly aware that nonlinear perspectives of the transition into adulthood and non-economic motives, such as family and friends, may help to improve our understanding of young adults' migration decisions. This paper combines these new insights with the traditional economic success–failure arguments in order to explain young adults' return migration to their rural home region. We present four orientations in return motives: the social, family, functional and partner orientation. They consist of different combinations of the stereotypical success–failure arguments with non-serial transitional stages, and with different attachments to the home region. They also show that in some cases, return migration should actually be interpreted as staying in the home region, because the young adult returnees had not mentally left the region. We therefore state that our results provide a solid argument for reinterpreting the out-migration of young people from rural areas.

Antecedents of franchisee responses to franchisor-initiated strategic change

This article uses an in-depth case study of two franchisor imposed change processes in one franchise system to generate propositions on the antecedents of franchisee responses to franchisor-initiated strategic change. The results point to the importance of the level of standardisation in the franchise system on franchisee responses to changes introduced by the franchisor. The franchise system’s standardisation level, as perceived and expected by franchisees, determines the number, nature and level of importance of antecedents of franchisee responses to change. Overall, franchisee expected profitability and trust are the most important antecedents. Additionally, non-economic motivations for running a franchise influence decisions to take-up alternative opportunities and diminish the importance of switching costs. Finally, actions of parties outside the existing franchise relationship may influence franchisee decisions to switch systems.

Why do corporate actors engage in pro-social behaviour? A Bourdieusian perspective on corporate social responsibility

Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social practice, this article develops a novel approach to the study of corporate social responsibility (CSR). According to this approach, pro-social activities are conceptualized as social practices that individual managers employ in their efforts to attain social power. Whether such practices are enacted or not depends on (1) the particular features of the social field; (2) the individual managers’ socially shaped dispositions and (3) their stock of different forms of capital. By combining these theoretical concepts, the Bourdieusian approach we develop highlights the interplay between the economic and non-economic motivations that underlie CSR, acknowledging influences both on the micro- and the macro-level, as well as deterministic and voluntaristic aspects of human behaviour.

Studing the Micro-Angels Approach to Micro-Investment Decisions

Purpose: The paper analyzes the micro-angels investment behaviour, looking both to the criteria used in the selection of their investment projects and to the characteristics of their guidance role during the investment period.Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper focuses on a double bottom line movement of French micro-angels clubs that has been operating since 1983. Our primary source of data is an online survey carried out during March 2012, asking members of clubs all over France for different aspects of their procedures.Findings: Our findings suggest that micro-angels are interested in small, socially or environmentally friendly projects having the potential to contribute to the development of their neighbourhood. We find that women are even more interested than men in such projects. Educated micro-angels value entrepreneurial motivation and understanding of the project more than less-educated micro-angels. We also point out the factors that micro-angels consider important in accompanying enterprises. Here we find that gender makes little difference. However, retired micro-angels value financial diagnosis made conjointly with entrepreneurs, while both active micro-angels and educated micro- ngels value more the use of their network to help micro-entrepreneurs.Practical/Social Implications: Given the potential benefits of micro-angels investing and guiding the development of micro-enterprises, a social micro-angel investment on a major scale in developing countries could help in tackling some of the problems faced by the development of microfinance, such as the over-indebtedness of micro-entrepreneurs. Practitioners and new initiatives would gain from understanding what adaptations need to be made.Originality/value: We expect to add to the venture capital theory to take into account non-economic motives.

A Bourdieusian Perspective on Corporate Social Responsibility

Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social practice, this paper develops a novel approach to the study of corporate social responsibility (CSR). According to this approach, pro-social activities are conceptualized as social practices that individual managers employ in their efforts to attain social power. Whether such practices are enacted or not depends on (1) the particular features of the social field, (2) the individual managers’ socially shaped dispositions and (3) their stock of different forms of capital. By combining these theoretical concepts, the Bourdieusian approach we develop highlights the interplay between the economic and non-economic motivations that underlie CSR, acknowledging influences both on the micro- and the macro-level, as well as deterministic and voluntaristic aspects of human behaviour.

Left-Behind Children and Return Decisions of Rural Migrants in China

This paper examines how left-behind children influence return migration in China. We first present a simple model that incorporates economic and non-economic motives for migration duration (or intentions to return). Based on Dustmann (2003b), the parent is assumed to be altruistic and to care about the prospects of her left-behind children. We then propose two complementary empirical tests based on an original dataset from a rural household survey carried out in Wuwei County (Anhui province, China) in fall 2008. We first use a discrete-time proportional hazard model to estimate the determinants of migration duration for both on-going migrants with incomplete length of duration and return migrants with complete length of duration. Second, we apply a binary Probit model to study the return intentions of on-going migrants. Both models find consistent results regarding the role of left-behind children as a significant motive for return. First, left-behind children are found to pull their parents back to the village, the effect being stronger for pre-school children. Second, sons are found to play a more important role than daughters in reducing migration duration.

Consumption, Credit, and Institutions: Using Field Research and Theory to Consider Poverty Alleviation

This paper discusses the role of social, institutional, and psychological factors in the consumption and borrowing behavior of low-income households, and makes arguments in favor of policy interventions to alleviate some of the challenges of these households. Focus group evidence and findings on the current behaviors and borrowing patterns of low-income families are provided to support and motivate this perspective on consumption and policy. While the data are drawn from a specific region, the observations and findings could be generalized to other communities after accounting for different cultural and social characteristics. This research provides an in-depth understanding of the challenges confronted by low-income individuals at achieving their economic desires for lives of basic dignity, explores both economic and non-economic motivations, and provides insights useful for policy deliberation and model development.

Finding the right levers: the serious side of ‘economics made fun’

The serious side of the Economics Made Fun genre stems from its mantra that people respond to incentives. As Levitt and Dubner put it, economists typically believe they can solve virtually all problems by designing a proper incentive scheme. What is not always sufficiently appreciated is that Levitt and Dubner argue that economists nowadays grant the existence of social and moral incentives, besides the standard economic ones. A glance at the relevant literature in academic economics confirms this. Although there is an ongoing debate in academic economics about the necessity and desirability of introducing social preferences in utility functions and also about the relative strengths of various sorts of preferences, economists increasingly take the existence of various sorts of incentives and motivations into account. The recognition of non-monetary incentives and of non-economic motivation makes the economic approach to policy making more comprehensive and flexible. But since there might be various kinds of interaction effects between different sorts of incentives and different sorts of motivations, it also vastly complicates devising optimal policy schemes. What Levitt and Dubner say almost in passing about the “strange nature” of incentives also reflects the present state of art in academic economics: while it is increasingly acknowledged that different sorts of incentives and different sorts of motivations might interact in various ways, little is still known about when, under what conditions, the one or the other interaction effect obtains. Yet knowledge of the latter is required to devise optimal incentive schemes. Thus even though Levitt and Dubner might be right that economists are quite confident that they can solve virtually all problems by devising optimal incentive schemes, it seems the limited understanding of incentives, motivations and their various interaction effects in present-day academic economics falls short of bolstering this confidence.