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The purpose of this paper is to examine whether visitors’ seeking and escaping motivations influence the cognitive evaluation of a non-traditional festival in Saudi Arabia, which in turn leads to the sense of joy and subsequent word-of-mouth publicity. In Saudi Arabia, leisure and tourism opportunities are limited and many Saudis have a strong desire for new leisure experiences. Although the government and event organizers have made efforts to provide visitors with unconventional experiences at non-tradition-based festivals, these festivals have not attracted many Saudi Arabian visitors.

A quantitative methodology was used based on the on-site data collected from 458 visitors attending the Abha summer festival in Saudi Arabia. A structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships among seeking motivations, escaping motivations, cognitive evaluation, sense of joy and word-of-mouth.

The result reveals that two seeking motivations (i.e. food and entertainment) and two escaping motivations (i.e. diversion and escape) influence cognitive evaluation, which in turn influences their sense of joy and ultimately word-of-mouth. However, novelty, a seeking motivation, does not influence cognitive evaluation.

The authors limited the study of seeking and escaping motivations to one non-traditional festival in Saudi Arabia. Further studies can use multiple festivals to increase generalizability to non-traditional festivals in Saudi Arabia. Another extension of this study would be to examine these motivations in both traditional and non-traditional festivals in Saudi Arabia to assess to what extent visitors’ seeking and escaping motivations are fulfilled in each type of festival.

Diversion motivation is the most important factor for non-traditional festival organizers to consider in developing strategies to attract more visitors in Saudi Arabia.

This paper is the first that applies Iso-Ahola’s motivation theory and the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion in the non-traditional festival setting in Saudi Arabia.

The examination of contextual factors that enhance or stifle employees’ creative performance is a new but rapidly growing research area. Theory and research in this area have focused on antecedents of employee creativity. In this paper, we review and discuss the major theoretical frameworks that have served as conceptual foundations for empirical studies. We then provide a review and critical appraisal of these empirical studies. Based on this review, we propose exciting possibilities for future research directions. Finally, we discuss implications of this body of work for human resource management.

Based on cognitive evaluation theory and gamification affordances, this study aims to understand how gamification affordances influence users’ intention to engage in sustainable behaviour and how new trends in Ant Forest influence its impact on green intrinsic motivation to support sustainable behaviours.

The authors developed a research model to explore the mechanisms underlying gamification affordances, psychological needs and green intrinsic motivation. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to assess the survey data (n = 393) and test the research model.

The results show that different gamification affordances can satisfy users’ needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness, which positively influences their green intrinsic motivation and engagement in sustainable behaviours. However, some affordances, such as competition, might negatively impact these psychological needs.

This research updates information system research on environmental sustainability and the Ant Forest context. The authors provide a new framework that links gamification affordances, psychological needs and sustainable behaviour. The study also examines changing trends in Ant Forest and their implications.

Drawing from the cognitive evaluation theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between student volunteers’ narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy, and commitment to university volunteer programmes through the mediating mechanisms of self-orientation and pro-social motivation. Further, it investigates the roll of servant leadership in mitigating these personality types and encouraging student volunteers to become more pro-socially motivated.

The study uses data collected via questionnaire from 156 student volunteers across Australia. Hypothesis testing was conducted using ordinary least squares regression with the path-analytic conditional process modelling (PROCESS) macro for SPSS.

The study’s analysis indicated that self-orientated motivation mediated the relationship between narcissism and normative commitment, and pro-social motivation mediated the relationship between both Machiavellianism and psychopathy, and affective commitment. Further, servant leadership was found to moderate the relationship between both Machiavellianism and psychopathy, and pro-social motivation, such that the negative relationship became weaker under a servant leader. These findings suggest that servant leaders play a significant role in encouraging “dark” personalities to see the light.

This research is the first to examine the use of the Dark Triad in a student volunteering context. It extends the cognitive evaluation theory by revealing that extrinsic (in contrast to intrinsic) motivations are “crowded out” as intrinsic (in contrast to extrinsic) motivations develop within individuals. The study also refines the social learning theory, by examining the influences of “positive” leadership attributes (servant leadership) on “darker” (Dark Triad) personalities.

Intrinsic motivation occurs due to positive reactions that arise directly from engagement in work activities. Scholars have asserted that intrinsic motivation plays an important role in organizational phenomena such as creativity (George, 2007), leadership (Piccolo & Colquitt, 2006), and performance (Gagné & Deci, 2005). We review the research literature on intrinsic motivation and provide an overview and integration of the leading theories. We then develop a conceptual model in which positive affect serves as a primary cause of intrinsic motivation. We discuss how affect alone may induce intrinsic motivation, how affect may lead to nonconscious experiences of intrinsic motivation, and how affect and cognitions may work in concert to produce the strongest and most persistent intrinsic motivation experiences. We conclude by suggesting new avenues for research that might be pursued using this cognitive–affective model of intrinsic motivation.

As personalized work arrangements, idiosyncratic deals can activate employees’ energy and thus affect their innovative performance. The purpose of this study was to examine whether employee vitality mediates the relationships between two different types of idiosyncratic deals and the innovative performance of employees and whether the mediating effects are moderated by employees’ age.

Matched data were collected from 620 employees and their direct supervisors who work in two large Chinese technology R&D organizations.

Results indicate that two different types of i-deals (task and work responsibilities i-deals and flexibility i-deals) are positively related to the innovative performance of employees and that vitality mediates those relationships. Further, chronological age enhances the positive relationship between task and work responsibilities i-deals and vitality, and it enhances the indirect effect that task and work responsibilities i-deals relate to the innovative performance of employees through vitality. However, the results of this study indicate that the moderating effect of chronological age on flexibility i-deals and vitality, as well as the moderated mediation effects of vitality on the relationship between flexibility i-deals and the innovative performance of employees, did not meet the standard for significance.

Based on the cognitive evaluation theory, this study explores more deeply the mechanism by which task and work responsibilities i-deals and flexibility i-deals activate employees’ energy and thus influence their innovative performance. In addition, this study comprehensively considers the moderating effect of chronological age, an important demographic variable, on the mechanism of idiosyncratic deals.

Underpinned by paradox theory, this study aims to investigate how and when intragroup cooperation and competition combine to drive individual creativity. It further examines how group goal orientation influences individuals’ creative processes by underscoring its effect on individuals' tendency to adopt a paradox lens.

A time-lagged survey was conducted with 85 leaders and 420 employees in Chinese high-tech companies that were actively engaged in innovative activities.

The results reveal that pure cooperation or pure competition exerts no significant influence on creativity, yet simultaneous high levels of cooperation and competition give rise to strong levels of creativity. This combined effect of cooperation and competition on employees' creativity could be explained by their changes in cognitive flexibility. Moreover, employees' flexible responses to high levels of cooperation and competition could be promoted when groups enact learning goals rather than performance goals.

This study provides a theoretical perspective on how cooperation and competition can be contingent upon each other. It also highlights the role of group learning goals when members strive to be creative in groups with high levels of competition and cooperation.

Cognitive evaluation theory (CET; Deci, 1975), SDT's first mini-theory, was built from research on the dynamic interplay between external events (e.g., rewards, choice) and people's task interest or enjoyment – that is, intrinsic motivation (IM). At the time, this research was quite controversial, as operant theory (Skinner, 1971) had dominated the psychological landscape. The central assumption of operant theory was that reinforcement contingencies in the environment control behavior, which precluded the existence of inherently satisfying activities performed for non-separable outcomes. During this time, Deci proposed that people – by nature – possess intrinsic motivation (IM), which can manifest as engagement in curiosity-based behaviors, discovery of new perspectives, and seeking out optimal challenges (see also Harlow, 1953; White, 1959). IM thus represents a manifestation of the organismic growth tendency and is readily observed in infants' and toddlers' exploratory behavior and play. Operationally, an intrinsically motivated activity is performed for its own sake – that is, the behavior is experienced as inherently satisfying. From an attributional perspective (deCharms, 1968), such behaviors have an internal perceived locus of causality, as people perceive their behavior as emanating from their sense of self, rather than from experiences of control or coercion.