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The goal of this paper is to better understand affiliation motivation patterns among students interested in pursuing entrepreneurial/self‐employment careers as compared to students less interested in pursuing entrepreneurial careers.

The study sample included 424 college students enrolled in upper‐division business courses in a public institution in the Mid‐Atlantic region of the USA. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the effects of four dimensions of affiliation motivation on entrepreneurial aspirations.

Interest in entrepreneurial careers was negatively associated with the need for emotional support and positively associated with the need for positive stimulation from other persons. Therefore, persons with entrepreneurial interests enjoy interacting with other people, but they are not emotionally dependent upon them. Neither the need for social comparison nor the need for attention varied as a function of entrepreneurial aspirations.

Future research should distinguish among persons seeking different types of entrepreneurial and self‐employment opportunities, as well as compare business students both to students studying fields other than business and persons established in careers.

Knowledge of persons' affiliation motivation patterns may contribute to effective career counseling and career development.

This paper contributes to greater understanding of the distinguishing characteristics of persons aspiring to be entrepreneurs by assessing four subcategories of affiliation motivation rather than treating it as a one‐dimensional concept.

People have unconscious motives which affects their decision-making and associated behavior. The paper describes a study using thematic apperception test (TAT) to measure how unconscious motives influence travelers' interpretations and preferences toward alternative tours and hotels. Using the TAT, the present study explores the relationships between three unconscious needs: (1) achievement, (2) affiliation, and (3) power and preferences for four package tours (adventure, culture, business, and escape tours) and for seven hotel identities (quality, familiarity, location, price, friendliness, food and beverage, and cleanliness and aesthetics). The present study conducts canonical correlation analyses to examine the relationships between unconscious needs and preferences for package tours and hotel identities using data from 467 university students. The study scores 2,438 stories according to the TAT manual to identify unconscious needs. The findings indicate that (1) people with a high need for affiliation prefer an experience based on cultural values and hotels that are conveniently located, (2) individuals with a high need for power indicate a preference for high prices and good value for their money, and (3) people with a high need for achievement prefer a travel experience with adventure as a motivation. The study findings are consistent with previous research of McClelland (1990), Wilson (2002), and Woodside et al. (2008) in exploring impacts of the unconscious levels of human need.

This study examined gender differences in CEOs' expression of implicit achievement, power and affiliation motivation. Building on the role congruity account of sex differences and similarities in motivation and existing literature on implicit motives, the study tested whether female CEOs would express higher affiliation motivation than male CEOs and similar levels of achievement motivation. In addition, gender differences in power motivation were explored.

The study used propensity score matching to generate a comparable sample of male and female CEOs from publicly traded companies. Subsequently, the authors content-coded CEO letters from annual reports using Winter's (1994) manual for scoring motive imagery in running text.

Overall, CEOs expressed more achievement and power motivation than affiliation motivation. Comparisons between male and female CEOs showed that female CEOs expressed lower power and higher affiliation motivation than male CEOs.

By integrating implicit motive theory with social role theory and the role congruity account of motivation, this study provides a theoretical framework and novel demonstration that understanding social roles and gender roles can lend insights into motive expression by CEOs.

The study uses established theory and a validated scoring method in a novel way by analyzing implicit motives from CEO letters, a critical communication channel in the CEO–shareholder relationship. In doing so, this study adopts a sociocultural perspective. Informed by the role congruity account of motivation, the study demonstrates the importance of social roles and gender roles for motivational displays.

Much of the success of a relationship marketing program rests on the consumers' choice to participate in a service relationship in the first instance. The purpose of this study is to examine the degree to which this desire of the consumer to engage in a relationship impacts on their perceived cognitive‐state gains (motivation, confidence and affiliation) and key measures of consumer‐to‐business relationship success (relationship strength, satisfaction and retention intentions).

Following a qualitative study, the main quantitative study used a self‐administered survey of 334 service consumers to understand relationship perceptions. Structural equation modeling was then used to test the hypotheses.

Analysis revealed that consumers desire to participate in a relationship influenced their level of motivation, degree of confidence and these, in turn, impacted on the consumers' sense of affiliation with the service provider. A consumer's sense of affiliation subsequently influenced the strength of their relationship and their level of satisfaction with the relationship. Additionally, the effect of relationship desire on relationship strength and satisfaction was apparent. Consumers' desire indirectly impacted on retention intentions, suggesting that service managers should be careful not to assume that consumers' deliberate choice to participate in a relationship will routinely result in loyalty.

Practitioners and academics have sought to determine why some consumers, and not others, participate in relationships. This study adds to knowledge in this area by empirically demonstrating the extent to which the desire of a consumer to participate in a service relationship effects the gains accrued to the consumer and the relationship outcomes.

The present study aims to investigate the psychometric properties of the picture story exercise (PSE), a tool for measuring implicit motivations in Iran.

The research method is descriptive correlation and was conducted in two studies. In the first study 24 psychology master’s students were selected by convenience sampling method and tested them to check retest and inter-coder reliability. The second study investigated the correlation between self-reports and the PSE test on a sample of managers. Its statistical population comprised all the managers of a refinery company, 50 people were selected by convenience sampling method. To check the concurrent validity of the PSE test, the participants of the second study, completing the PSE, also completed the needs questionnaire of Steers and Porter (1979).

The findings showed that the PSE test in the Iranian sample had high retest reliability (0.62 on mean) and inter-coder reliability (0.87 on mean), and, following previous research, it does not show a significant relationship with self-reported motives.

PSE can be used in future research as a tool that has demonstrated its reliability and validity in the Iranian sample.

Measurement of implicit motives is a practical factor for predicting people’s behavior, the necessity of using tools that can accurately evaluate implicit motives is strongly felt. Taking into account the fact that so far, in Iranian samples, implicit motivations have not been measured, therefore, the current research is trying to answer this question, whether one of the most important and prominent tools that were made for this purpose and used in various studies can also be used in Iranian samples.

The purpose of this paper is to document and explore the perceptual motivations for voluntary and continued affiliation with a fitness industry register by its affiliates (“members”) and non-affiliates (“non-members”). The formation of fitness industry registers to impart self-regulation is a common global occurrence. Their sustainment, however, is reliant on the motivations and voluntary support of industry members. Limited work has been done in this area.

This qualitative study uses the interpretive research paradigm, involving semi-structured interviews with 12 Auckland, New Zealand, fitness centre managers, industry associations, New Zealand Register of Exercise Professionals (Reps NZ) and Fitness New Zealand. Lenox’s (2006) participation-contingent benefits framework provides the necessary lens to explore the perceptual motivations behind participation/non-participation by fitness centres with an industry self-regulatory system (i.e. Reps NZ).

Whereas participation-contingent benefits are perceived minimal, and exceeded by affiliation limitations, there is institutional congruence for industry regulation to exist, thus creating institutional pressures that encourage affiliation and retention. Whereas affiliates choose to absorb the associated inconveniences of affiliation to “support” Reps NZ, non-affiliates question the register’s regulatory form, choosing to avoid the affiliation costs and limitations.

This study lends further support that institutional development is crucial for inclusive, substantive and sustainable self-regulatory systems. Regardless of the perceived low return on participation-contingent benefits, industry self-regulation can be sustained if there is a desire by industry members to maintain the institutional notion that the regulation needs to exist.

Companies are now using social network sites (SNSs) within their marketing and brand-building activities. Twitter is the preferred SNS for creating brand communities, which offer companies many advantages. The purpose of this paper is to examine how individuals manage their competing needs for being affiliated (operationalized as personal and communal-brand connections) and for being seen as distinctive (operationalized as need for uniqueness (NFU)) when they are members of brand communities on Twitter. The authors have also analysed which type of brand community is able to achieve the balance between both needs, enhancing identification with the brand community.

A total of 318 valid responses were collected from three camera brand communities on Twitter. Messages (“tweets”) which included a link to an online questionnaire were sent to community members via Twitter. The authors examine the proposed model using structural equation modelling.

The authors demonstrate that consumers can satisfy their need for affiliation in brand communities created in Twitter. However, consumers can only reach a balance between the need for affiliation and the need for distinctiveness in brand communities built around niche brands. In contrast, the two needs work in opposition to shape identification in brand communities of big brands.

Optimal distinctiveness theory is used as a theoretical background for proposing how the antecedents of identification with the brand community enhance brand loyalty, with reference to the conflict between the individual’s needs for both distinctiveness and affiliation. Consumers’ identification with the brand community is proposed as a mediator to achieve brand loyalty in brand communities. Consumers reach this balance in brand communities built around a niche brand, where individuals with high NFU feel a high identification with the brand community. For big brands, as consumers’ NFU increases, their identification with the brand community and brand loyalty decreases.

This study attempts to identify the factors and relationships that influence community of practice (CoP) members' knowledge‐sharing attitudes, intentions, and behaviors.

The Theory of Planned Behavior model, Motivation Theory, and the Triandis model were employed here. For the empirical validation, 282 responses from four Korean companies were collected.

Whereas both extrinsic motivational and intrinsic motivational factors positively influenced attitude toward knowledge‐sharing behaviors, intrinsic motivational factors were more influential in this regard. Additionally, some differences in knowledge‐sharing mechanisms were noted between formally managed CoPs and informally nurtured CoPs.

Since the survey samples used herein were limited to Korean companies, the results of this study may prove ungeneralizable.

For managers who intend to introduce CoPs to their firm, a CoP supportive environment must be created, such that the image, reciprocity, enjoyment of helping, and need for affiliation of each CoP member can be satisfied.

This study is one of the first pieces of integrative research regarding CoPs to target understanding of the most crucial component of CoP activities, namely knowledge sharing.

To shed some light on the motivational profile of entrepreneurial as opposed to professional CEOs in Greece.

Based on McClelland's motivational patterns, i.e. power, achievement and affiliation, as well as responsibility; interviews with Greek entrepreneurial and professional CEOs were conducted. Then, interviews were content‐analysed, in order to identify differences in motivational profiles of those two groups of CEOs.

Achievement, motivation and responsibility were found to be the most significant discriminating factors between entrepreneurial and professional CEOs.

The current research focuses only on McClelland's typology. Other aspects affecting entrepreneurial inclination are not studied in the current paper.

One of the major implications deriving from the identified characteristics of successful entrepreneurial and professional CEOs has to do with the preparation and training of young leaders for both larger and smaller firms.

This paper studies, for the first time, the leadership profile of CEOs in Greece and identifies differences between professional and entrepreneurial ones. This is of great value in an SMEs dominated economy, such as Greece, where these research findings can be used for the development of entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of the confirmation of the motivations of tourists in changing image of a tourist destination pre- and post-visit. That is, considering whether once the tourist has made the trip, depending on whether their expectations have been met and confirmed motivations, will have a more or less image gap.

The authors conducted an empirical study with a representative sample of leisure tourists to Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) of both sexes, 16 or more years of age, and visiting the island of Tenerife for the first time from abroad and from the rest of Spain. The final sample was 411 participants.

The results verify that the confirmation of the intellectual and escape motivations influences directly and positively change cognitive image pre- and post-visit. The fact that the affiliation motivations do not influence the cognitive image gap may be due to that tourists who visit a destination stay with friends or family and for this they interact less with the destination, which will imply that the cognitive image pre- and post-visit do not vary.

This research has sought to contribute towards a better understanding of the area, which is concerned, with the image of destinations and, more specifically, the concept of how the image changes after a visit to the destination. In this sense, and given the of lack empirical evidence about how confirmation of motivations influences on destination image gap, this research aims to contribute to the improvement of knowledge about the personal factors that influence the change of the pre- and post-visit destination image.