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A model of stereotypical beliefs that older workers have difficulty learning and developing and are not motivated to learn is presented. Three categories of antecedents of the stereotypical beliefs are addressed: (1) experience with stereotype-consistent behaviors and promulgation of the stereotype by others; (2) perceived learning and development inhibitors internal to the older worker; and (3) perceived learning and development inhibitors external to the older worker. Potential consequences of the stereotypical beliefs for older workers and employing organizations are also explored. Individuating information and knowledge of within-older-group differences are posited to attenuate the influence of group-based stereotypes. Processes and tactics within organizations that should increase this information and knowledge are presented. The proposed model provides a framework to help guide future research on this topic and also some suggestions for managing a work place where these beliefs may exist.

Serious games are computer games with a primary purpose of educating or training while also entertaining. Literature has established that serious games can enhance learning in the classroom and improve student engagement. However, few studies have analyzed the factors that inhibit the adoption of serious games. The current study extends research by analyzing inhibitors of serious game adoption in an introductory accounting course for MBA students. The accounting mobile challenge (AMC) is a mobile accounting trivia game which utilizes both competitive and collaborative features in gameplay. Results demonstrated that students who identified as collaborative engaged in a greater amount of gameplay while those who identified as competitive did not. Furthermore, independent learners, as well as those who utilized mobile technology more outside of class, more readily adopted the technology. Utilizing the Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989) as a framework, it was predicted that the perceived value of the AMC would increase as students played the game more. Results support this prediction. Finally, a “discouragement effect” was detected as a major inhibitor to utilizing the technology as students who did poorly gave up and discontinued playing the game. This research contributes to the emerging literature on the inhibitors to serious game adoption in accounting.

Education systems are currently being affected by COVID-19, given the suspension of academic and administrative on-site activities. This has hampered people’s access to connectivity services to continue their class sessions, in turn affecting the mental health of many students. The purpose of this study is to validate the scale used to measure the relationship between the various stress factors and academic activities performed by students in a teleworking environment in situations of isolation or confinement. A 36-item online questionnaire was designed and applied during the month of May 2020, obtaining 320 responses. According to the results of the survey, it is important to highlight that the teleworking scale is statistically valid and reliable for use in other contexts, and it is hoped that the results obtained can be used to develop strategies to strengthen the teaching-learning process and the teleworking modality.

To investigate a firm's propensity to continue internationalization, the so-called Uppsala internationalization process model is a logical point of departure (Johanson & Vahlne, 1977, 1990). Building upon a behavioral theory of the firm (Cyert & March, 1963) and Penrose's (1959) theory of the growth of the firm, the basic logic of the Uppsala or U-model is quite straightforward: The allocation of resources to foreign activities holds a certain risk yet induces experiential learning, which results in market-specific knowledge. The increasing stock of market-specific knowledge reduces this risk and stimulates additional allocation of resources (Eriksson, Johanson, Majkgård, & Sharma, 1997).

Classical definitions of motivation typically involve two main components: direction and activation. Motivated behavior is directed toward or away from particular stimuli (i.e., appetitive and aversive motivation). Furthermore, activational aspects of motivation refer to the observation that motivated behavior is characterized by substantial activity, vigor, persistence, and exertion of effort in both the initiation and maintenance of behavior. Although separate neural systems direct organisms toward distinct motivational stimuli (e.g., food, water, sex), there appears to be a common circuitry regulating behavioral activation and the exertion of effort. Mesolimbic dopamine is one of the brain systems mediating activational aspects of motivation and exertion of effort. This system integrates aspects of motivation and motor control functions involved in the instigation of action. Research on the neurobiology of effort has contributed to our understanding of the pathophysiology of neurological and psychiatric disorders that are characterized by motivational dysfunction.

We investigate whether information technology (IT) can help physicians more efficiently acquire new knowledge in a clinical environment characterized by information overload. We combine analysis of data from a randomized trial with a theoretical model of the influence that IT has on the acquisition of new medical knowledge. Although the theoretical framework we develop is conventionally microeconomic, the model highlights the non-market and non-pecuniary influence activities that have been emphasized in the sociological literature on technology diffusion. We report three findings. First, empirical evidence and theoretical reasoning suggests that computer-based decision support will speed the diffusion of new medical knowledge when physicians are coping with information overload. Second, spillover effects will likely lead to “underinvestment” in this decision support technology. Third, alternative financing strategies common to new IT, such as the use of marketing dollars to pay for the decision support systems, may lead to undesirable outcomes if physician information overload is sufficiently severe and if there is significant ambiguity in how best to respond to the clinical issues identified by the computer. This is the first paper to analyze empirically and theoretically how computer-based decision support influences the acquisition of new knowledge by physicians.

This chapter studies the conditions under which market intermediaries reward or sanction market actors who deviate from the prevailing categorical order. The authors first assess how the expertise of a market intermediary – an understudied determinant of their authority – can lead to a positive evaluation of categorical deviation. Then, the authors identify two inhibitors that are likely to temper such positive appraisal: identity preservation and competition among market intermediaries. Factoring in both micro-level and macro-level dimensions of market dynamics, this chapter contributes to research on market intermediaries, the evolution of category systems, and more broadly, to the microfoundations of institutional change.

This research initiates an exploratory research assessing the general attitudes of hoteliers from independently owned properties toward environmental management issues and determines the facilitators motivating them to introduce environmental management policies as well as the inhibitors hindering the adoption. This study distributes the questionnaires via email to 250 medium-sized hotels, from the rating of three to five stars, in Germany. As a result, 41 useful questionnaires are obtained and analysed. The findings suggest that the communication of new environmental initiatives between hoteliers and environmental organizations is not so effective. In general, the respondents agree that environmental policy is necessary and they view that sound environmental management systems would have a positive effect on customers’ perception of the hotel.

Social psychology has focused on two major explanations for political mass killing: obedience-authoritarianism and conformity although competition and in-group-out-group distinctions also have drawn substantial attention. However, the ability of any of the social sciences to account for the phenomena has been limited. Another perspective is developed, which examines (a) support for international law governing restraint in conflict and (b) views of respondents towards attackers and victims in actual historical incidents. A national probability sample of 1,504 Russian adults was interviewed in early 1999 and shortly afterwards a sample of 579 students at the Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH) in Moscow. Respondents were presented with statements, from international law governing restraints in armed conflict. In addition, a short description of a historical incident was presented. Each respondent was asked to (a) assign a penalty if any to each of three organizational levels of the attackers and (b) evaluate the attributes and motives of the attackers and the victims. The international law section indicated weak to moderate support for many of the principles. Results for the historical events included (1) relatively high penalties for at least one level of the attacking hierarchy, (2) lower penalties for attackers in which the home country was the initiator, (3) higher penalties for the commanders than for lower levels, and (4) a similar factor structure in each sample for the victim–attacker assessments and high predictability from victim–attacker evaluations to assigned penalty. This chapter focuses on the psychological dimensions for evaluating political mass killing.