Egoistic Motives Research Articles

Voluntary CSR disclosure, institutional environment, and independent audit demand

Using a sample of A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, this study examines the impact of voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure on independent audit demand in different institutional environments. The sample covers the 2008–2016 period and excludes firms that are required to disclose CSR information. The findings show that compared with companies that choose to not disclose such information, companies that voluntarily disclose CSR information prefer to employ “small” accounting firms for auditing services, although the auditing fees are much higher. However, as the institutional environment improves, this preference is weakened. Further analyses show that this preference is stronger in enterprises where CSR disclosure is driven by strong political motivations and managerial self-interest motivations. Legitimate motivations and economic motivations do not significantly impact the preference for “small” audit firms. Furthermore, this preference is more obvious in enterprises with poor operational performance and low information disclosure quality, and it increases as CSR disclosure level decreases. The study enriches our understanding of the economic consequences of voluntary CSR disclosure and the factors that influence independent audit demand. The results also have implications for the construction and regulation of China’s system for supervising CSR information disclosure in the transitional phase.

Centralization through decentralization? The crystallization of social order in the European Union

ABSTRACT Attaining social order is one of the principal dilemmas in the social sciences. Whereas most individuals and polities would be better off in a highly ordered society, their self-interested motivations instead often lead them to forgo cooperation and engage in behaviour that undermines social order. This paper develops a novel theory – termed crystallization – that shows how inter-territorial cooperation at lower levels of organization can sustain social order at a higher level. The framework is tested empirically to account for the integration of the European Union. All told, it is found that the extent of regional authority within a European Union member state is positively correlated with that state’s legal and economic integration into the European Union. These results are compatible with a modified account of liberal intergovernmentalism. More generally, it is contended that large-scale cooperation between groups or states is causally linked to the concatenation of smaller scale governance units and polities nested within them. Thus, it emerges, somewhat paradoxically, that further centralization at the European Union level is likely to be encouraged by decentralization within the member states.

How does a liberalizing market influence a synergy between redistribution preference and social preferences in Asian socio-economies?

Asian people may demand more social welfare or greater redistributive expenditure because they are currently faced with problems of growing economic inequality and a state of social development that is lagging far behind its state of economic development. However, they do not seem to be in favor of demanding more welfare expenditure. This paper investigates how individual attitudes toward redistribution are shaped by focusing on institutional dependency and social preference to address this paradoxical issue. First, we show that social preferences are more relevant to redistribution preference than self-interested motives in Asian socio-economies. We also argue that a synergy between trustworthy individuals and a social preference space could work, leading to a stronger preference for redistribution. However, for the second, we show that the degree to which redistribution preference is associated with social preferences could be lowered as the market space is liberalized: in other words, a social preference space contracts. As a result, we cannot expect a synergy between a social preference space and trustworthy individuals to work, leading to a paradoxical situation, i.e., Asian people refrain from demanding that the government should undertake more redistributive expenditure despite their exacerbating income inequality, caused by the expansion of a liberal type of market space.

Educational Assistance and Education Quality in Indonesia: The Role of Decentralization

We examine the evolution of educational assistance in Indonesia, following two decades of government decentralization, and its effect on education quality. Using Indonesia Family Life Survey data, we exploit as exogenous rule the variation in the implementation of government decentralization to compute difference-in-difference estimators. Indicative evidence suggests decentralization has facilitated collusion between village authorities and marginalized private schools, with substantial increases in educational assistance and financial resources, especially to religious schools. Despite dominant rent-seeking behaviour and self-interest motives, increased public resource allocation to private schools impacted positively on student achievement. Our results also emphasize the role of social norms in undermining efficient public goods allocation after decentralization.

Urban Regimes in Small Russian Towns

This article presents the outcomes of a research project conducted in five small Russian towns. Different coalitions between local actors take place in all communities. However, coalitions that meet the criteria of the urban regime (in Stone's classical interpretation) have been discovered, with certain reservations, only in two towns. For a number of characteristics, these coalitions differed from regimes in American and European towns: often not quite voluntary nature of coalitions, prevalence of egoistic motives in the coalition–building, strong dependence of the regimes on the personal factor (personal qualities and resources of local administrators, their experience, relations with regional elites, etc.), absence of formal organizations able to coordinate the interests of coalition members, etc. In the three other local communities, urban regimes have not been built due to personal factors, frequent changes in the local government leadership, or the role of external factors (the nature of the relationship of local elites with regional and federal authorities, methods of influence of regional authorities on local politics). In the public agenda of the regimes (quasi–regimes), the elements of the status quo and, to a lesser extent, growth, prevail. The outcomes of study allow us to conclude that despite the authoritarian nature of the Russian politics and the differences between Russian and American contexts, urban regimes analysis is quite applicable for the study of power in Russian local communities.

A study on the relationship between perceived CSR motives, authenticity and company attitudes: a comparative analysis of cause promotion and cause-related marketing

In order to delve into the complexity involved in the role of authenticity in the context of CSR marketing, this study examines the relationships among perceived CSR motives, authenticity and company attitudes. A different effect of perceived CSR motives on authenticity is also examined between the two most representative types of CSR activities, namely, cause promotion and cause-related marketing. The results from a face-to-face survey with a sample of 289 respondents show that value-driven and stakeholder-driven motives had a positive effect on CSR authenticity while egoistic motives negatively affected CSR authenticity. Also, the effects of value-driven and stakeholder-driven motives on CSR authenticity were found to be larger for cause promotion than they were for cause-related marketing. However, the difference in the effects of the other two motives on CSR authenticity was not statistically significant between cause promotion and cause-related marketing. In addition, the effect of CSR authenticity on company attitudes was found to be statistically significant. When the relative strengths of the effects of four categories of motives on CSR authenticity were compared, value-driven motives had the strongest effect on CSR authenticity for both cause promotion and cause-related marketing. Interestingly, for cause promotion, stakeholder-driven motives had the second strongest effect while egoistic motives were least influential. For cause-related marketing, egoistic motives were found to be the second most influential factor, followed by strategic and stakeholder-driven motives. Practical implications of these finding are discussed along with theoretical implications.

Egoistic and altruistic motivation: How to induce users’ willingness to help for imperfect AI

Although artificial intelligence is a growing area of research, several problems remain. One such problem of particular importance is the low accuracy of predictions. This paper suggests that users' help is a practical approach to improve accuracy and it considers four factors that trigger users' willingness to help for an imperfect AI system. The two factors covered in Study 1 are utilitarian benefit based on egoistic motivation, and empathy based on altruistic motivation. In Study 2, utilitarian benefit is divided into explainable AI and monetary reward. The results indicate that two variables, namely empathy and monetary reward, have significant positive effects on willingness to help, and monetary reward is the strongest stimulus. In addition, explainable AI is shown to be positively associated with trust in AI. This study applies social studies of help motivation to the HCI field in order to induce users' willingness to help for an imperfect AI. The triggers of help motivation, empathy and monetary reward, can be utilized to induce the users’ voluntary engagement in the loop with an imperfect AI.

Consumer response to design variations in pay-what-you-want pricing

Recent literature has identified consumers’ fairness and image concerns as the primary drivers of payments under pay-what-you-want (PWYW) pricing. Consequently, managers have employed a variety of design variations to invoke/alleviate these concerns to attract more customers and increase payment magnitudes. We develop a theoretical approach that combines both prosocial and self-interested motives to examine consumers’ four possible responses to design variations in PWYW exchange: (1) opt-out, (2) free-ride, (3) default to recommendation, or (4) other payment. We confirm model predictions using an empirical approach that jointly estimates the multipartite customer response. We report findings pertaining to four managerially controllable variables namely, ‘payment visibility’, ‘information on payment recipients’, ‘timing of payment’, and ‘explicit price recommendations’ using both secondary data and controlled experiments. We show that design variations have a heterogeneous effect on different types of consumer responses leading to countervailing effects on revenues. We derive several actionable managerial recommendations.

The Impact of Spatial Knowledge on the Destination Knowledge Contribution in Tourism City

Recently, social networking sites(SNSs) users accumulate the information as to the spatial environment through geotag. Users also provide destination information by considering not only their own incentive(i.e., egoistic motivation) but also public benefits(i.e., altruistic motivation) in SNSs. The existing studies on geotag regard that it is important for the construction of tourism information system and the application possibility. However, existing studies have not fully reflected to understand building destination information, forming motivation of contributing destination knowledge, and explaining the behavior of contribution due to the use of geotag. Thus, this study aimed to understand it from the spatial knowledge and the perspective of the private collective model. As a result of the empirical analysis, the accumulation of spatial knowledge learned through geotag positively affected egoistic motivation and altruistic motivation. In addition, altruistic motivation had a positive effect on destination information contribution. However, egoistic motivation had no significant effect on the contribution of destination knowledge. Our research conveys theoretical implications to tourism research through geotag. In addition, it suggests practical implications for marketing marketers using SNS to destination marketers.

Acquiescence or Resistance: Group Norms and Self-Interest Motivation in Unethical Consumer Behaviour

Understanding why consumers behave unethically has gained scholarly attention; many studies have examined it from psychological or social environmental perspectives. However, few studies provide the link between internal and external factors associated with unethical behaviours, and few studies explain why consumers ‘behave unethically knowingly’ in a China-specific context. Based on moral disengagement theory, the current research aims to provide a comprehensive developmental model to investigate how group norms and self-interest motivation affect consumers’ unethical behavioural intentions and to analyse the mechanism of ‘behaving unethically knowingly’. Findings from online surveys of 360 participants indicate that group recognition and an egoism motivation have positive effects on consumers’ unethical behavioural intentions, while group veto and an altruistic motivation have negative effects on unethical behavioural intentions; moral disengagement mediates the relationship between group recognition, group veto, egoism motivation, altruistic motivation and unethical behavioural intentions; moral identity negatively moderates the relationship between group recognition, altruistic motivation and unethical behavioural intentions. The theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Puritan peers or egoistic entrepreneurs? Moral decay in lateral exchange markets

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the impact of LEM participation on moral identity. Lateral exchange markets (LEMs) enable ordinary people to monetize idle personal resources such as cars, homes, gadgets and skills. Despite its champions portraying actors in these exchange as moral citizens of society, recent findings suggest that egoistic motives drive participation. A salient moral identity motivates behaviors that show social sensitivity to others and enable cooperative actions. Given that platform-providing firms rely on users’ cooperative behaviors to facilitate lateral exchange, understanding factors that affect moral identity can have important implications for the success of such business models.Design/methodology/approachIn this research, the authors move away from the ideological discourse behind actors’ motivations, to provide a pragmatic explanation of how participation erodes moral identity. The authors apply a social cognitive framework to examine how the environment in LEMs impacts behaviors and personal factors in a recursive fashion.FindingsAcross two studies, findings reveal that prolonged participation in lateral exchange diminishes the centrality of moral identity to the working self-concept. Moreover, the results show that keeping puritan peers moral has positive business outcomes. This research also discerns a boundary condition that determines when peers remain consistent with their moral compasses. Specifically, when engagement is perceived as effortful, the behavior becomes an informative input in the inference of one’s moral disposition reinforcing moral identity.Originality/valueMarketers can use this research to design business models in ways that mitigate the decay of moral identity.

What Motivates Japan’s International Volunteers? Categorizing Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCVs)

The literature on international volunteer motivation has highlighted mainly Western cases, while almost ignoring Asian volunteers. Through an analysis of the motivations of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCVs), this study aims to identify who they are and to contribute to our understanding of individual behavior in relation to international volunteering. This is the first quantitative study of their motivation, and we surveyed them using a series of questionnaires. We obtained 1507 responses from the volunteers, and a cluster analysis of the revealed motives categorized them into six types, labeled as: (I) curious; (II) business-minded; (III) development assistance; (IV) quest for oneself; (V) change-oriented; and (VI) altruist. The results show that each of these groups tends to have a different set of motives, and these can be characterized according to their socio-demographic and behavioral information. The results confirm that JOCVs have the same altruistic and egoistic motivations that have been observed in the Western studies. From a practical perspective, our six clusters of volunteers match the three purposes of the JOCV program, and show that, to a certain extent, the program has been successful in recruiting young Japanese people. Moreover, the classifications will be helpful when the JOCV Secretariat managers wish to target specific types of volunteers for special recruiting and training.

Moral Disengagement and the Motivational Gap in Climate Change

Although climate change jeopardizes the fundamental human rights of current as well as future people, current actions and ambitions to tackle it are inadequate. There are two prominent explanations for this motivational gap in the climate ethics literature. The first maintains that our conventional moral judgement system is not well equipped to identify a complex problem such as climate change as an important moral problem. The second explanation refers to people’s reluctance to change their behaviour and the temptation to shirk responsibility. We argue that both factors are at play in the motivational gap and that they are complemented by crucial moral psychological insights regarding moral disengagement, which enables emitters to dissociate self-condemnation from harmful conduct. In this way, emitters are able to maintain their profligate, consumptive lifestyle, even though this conflicts with their moral standards with respect to climate change. We provide some illustrations of how strategies of moral disengagement are deployed in climate change and discuss the relationship between the explanations for the motivational gap and moral disengagement. On the basis of this explanatory framework, we submit that there are three pathways to tackle the motivational gap and moral disengagement in climate change: making climate change more salient to emitters and affirming their self-efficacy; reconsidering the self-interested motives that necessitate moral disengagement; and tackling moral disengagement directly.

The roles of celebrity endorsers’ and consumers’ vegan identity in marketing communication about veganism

ABSTRACT Celebrities endorsing veganism may exert social influence on consumers’ attitude toward veganism and behavioral intention to become vegan. A between-subjects online experiment (N = 303) examined the effects of consumers’ eating habits (meat eater versus non-meat eater) and celebrities’ vegan identity (altruistic motivation versus egoistic motivation) on various outcomes of health communication about veganism. Results of statistical analyses revealed a significant multivariate main effect of consumers’ eating habits on health consciousness, intention to spread electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) about veganism, and behavioral intention to become vegan. The results also reveal interaction effects between vegan celebrity endorsers’ motivation and consumers’ eating habits on health consciousness, intention to spread eWoM about veganism, and behavioral intention to become vegan. Additionally, moderating effects of source credibility, subjective norms, and identification with the vegan celebrity endorser were found. This study sheds some light on celebrity endorsements of veganism and effects of message framing on consumers’ veganism-related attitude and behavioral intention.

Egoizm. Thomas Hobbes i Kurt Baier

The article presents main dimensions of Hobbes’ egoism and confronts it with three interpretation of it. Five types of egoism distinguished by Kurt Baier are also presented: common-sense egoism, psychological egoism, egoism as a means to the common good, rational egoism and ethical egoism. I try to justify the opinion that egoism as a monistic standpoint is wrong and that self-interest motivation can be interpreted as a by-motivation only, so in the way which is different from egoism.

Do the effects of interpersonal emotion regulation depend on people's underlying motives?

Attempts to improve others' feelings have positive consequences, while attempts to worsen others' feelings have negative consequences. But do such effects depend on the motives underlying these attempts? In an experimental study, we tested whether leaders' apparent motives influence the effects of their interpersonal emotion regulation on followers. We found that the positive effects of using affect‐improving (vs. affect‐worsening) strategies on relational outcomes and discretional performance outcomes were largely enhanced when the leader exhibited prosocial motives but diminished when the leader exhibited egoistic motives. Our findings add nuance to our understanding of the effects of interpersonal emotion regulation at work.Practitioner points When leaders try to influence their followers' emotions, the consequences not only depend on the type of strategy used (improving vs. worsening), but also the leaders' apparent motives. If egoistic (vs. prosocial) motives underpin leaders' interpersonal emotional regulation, the positive effects of affect‐improving (vs. affect‐worsening) on leader–follower relationship quality and follower discretional performance are significantly reduced. Leaders should be aware of the behaviours they use during interactions with their followers as well as how their motives might be perceived.

Distributed Optimization Dispatch Strategy for Multi-agent System Based Isolated Microgrid

This paper proposes a distributed optimization dispatch strategy for an isolated microgrid (MG) using multi-agent system (MAS). The isolated MG consists of suppliers, consumers and energy storage operators which are considered as agents. Based on the selfinterest motivation market, a real-time price mechanism is proposed to optimize energy supply and demand, aiming to maximize the social welfare of each agent in the isolated MG. To achieve market equilibrium among all agents in the isolated MG, an asynchronous Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) algorithm is designed to provide market clearing price and solve power balance, where each agent only needs to exchange a small amount of information with its neighboring agents. Simulation results demonstrate the validity of the proposed strategy.

Sustainable development in Vietnam: An examination of consumers' perceptions of green products

AbstractClimate change has led to the rise of a sustainable development area characterized by the consumers' consideration of social and environmental issues. The existing literature on responsible consumption has essentially explored the context of western countries; however, little information is given around the consumer behavior towards green products in developing countries. This study enriches this literature by exploring the context of Vietnam that was heavily affected by climate changes. More precisely, the authors aim to explore the content of green products from the consumers' point of view, as well as their motivations and barriers to consume eco‐friendly products. A qualitative study conducted with 29 Vietnamese respondents showed that consumers associate green products to five dimensions: environment, health, quality, price, and animal welfare. They express essentially egoistic motivations related to health and product's quality. In addition, the main barriers to purchase green products identified in the study correspond to the lack of information and confidence towards green claims, sellers, and certifications.

Attribution of Egoistic Versus Altruistic Motives to Acts of Helping

Abstract. This research investigated the effects of helpers’ status and the intended publicity of the helping act on observers’ attributions of altruistic versus egoistic motives to helpers. Results from two studies (overall N = 670), in which we varied helpers’ status (low vs. high) and intended publicity of the helping act (private vs. public) suggest that observers attribute more egoistic (and less altruistic) motives to the helping act when helpers intended to make their helping public (vs. keeping it private) and were of high (vs. low) status. Moreover, status and publicity had a negative indirect effect on observers’ willingness to assist helpers via increased attribution of predominantly egoistic motives. Implications of these findings for theory and real-world helping will be discussed.

Altruism in behavioural, motivational and evolutionary sense

This paper discusses the relations between three forms of altruism: behavioural, evolutionary and motivational. Altruism in a behavioural sense is an act that benefits another person. It can range from volunteering to a charity and helping a neighbour, to giving money to a non-profit organisation or donating blood. People often dedicate their material and nonmaterial resources for the benefit of others to gain psychological, social and material benefits for themselves. Thus, their altruistic acts are driven by egoistic motivation. Also, the final goal of an altruistic act may be the increase in the welfare of a group or adherence to a certain moral principle or a social norm. However, at least sometimes, the welfare of others is the ultimate goal of our actions, when our altruistic acts are performed from altruistic motivation. In evolutionary sense, altruism means the sacrifice of reproductive success for the benefit of other organisms. According to evolutionary theories, behaviour which promotes the reproductive success of the receiver at the cost of the actor is favoured by natural selection, because it is either beneficial for the altruist in the long run, or for his genes, or for the group he belongs to. However, altruism among people emerges as a distinctly human combination of innate and learned behaviours. Not only do we benefit the members of our own group, but we are capable of transcending our tribalistic instincts and putting the benefit of strangers at our own personal expense as our ultimate goal.