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Despite the increased recognition and emphasis on corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a topic and highly formalised CSR control systems, numerous well-publicised problems and scandals often involving multinational enterprises (MNEs) continue to emerge. These companies are mostly extrinsically motivated in CSR. They operate with highly formalised CSR systems that, in many cases, miss the prevention of anti-social and illegal behaviour. This might reflect the failure of extrinsic CSR to integrate the ethical dimension and/or the failure of intrinsic CSR to formalise and thus benefit from economies of scale. Currently, the conviction is growing that if CSR is to have a meaningful impact, it should be a matter of intrinsic motives, morale and ethical values rather than a formalised management tool. This research aims to focus on a sample of small and large companies in Switzerland, aiming at a comparison of key motives for CSR related to actual CSR implementation, performance and company size.

The study examined two groups: seven owner-managers of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and seven managers of MNEs. Each group met for two focus group discussions that were qualitatively and visually analysed using MAXQDA.

The results show that CSR implementation in the examined Swiss SMEs is more related to moral commitment than to profit maximisation. These companies are often driven by soft assets, such as networks, by the nexus of mission and value set; by a system of initiatives and integrated behaviour; by proximity and informal, flat organisational structures; by the aspiration and ambition of craftsmanship or excellent service (instead of profit); by community involvement; by recruiting from the local community; by the willingness to grow slowly and steadily; by the avoidance of atomic markets; and finally, by the mental set up and sociological tradition of the stewardship concept. This contrasts with the extrinsically motivated approach of the MNEs under research. While MNEs follow their approach of “ethics for the firm that must pay”, the findings here identified potential transition cases of “ethics in the firm” and “ethics of the firm” within Swiss SMEs. This is consistent with others, resembling the need of this dichotomy to be revised.

The cross-sectorial approach limits the degree to which motives can clearly be attributed to actual CSR performance or company size.

The results imply that policymakers, public institutions, scientific community, etc. should be careful when establishing systems that favour financial returns from CSR engagement, because, first, other research showed that a behaviour attributed to extrinsic motives is mostly perceived as dishonest and misleading, for instance, consumers. Second, extrinsic motivation might crowd out morale and paying lead actors for behaving altruistically or philanthropically might decline their intrinsic motivation. Notably, the crowding out of intrinsic motivation by extrinsic incentives is a phenomenon well-researched not only in regard to CSR but in various other areas linked to human behaviour. This has important implications for nearly every business operation, especially for mergers and acquisitions, as well as for the growth of businesses.

It seems unsuitable to support social goods in intrinsic CSR by the implementation of a system of financial incentives (or consequences). Thus, an economic cost-benefit is inappropriate where CSR needs an ethical stand. The difference between extrinsic and intrinsic CSR is very difficult to bridge – both have powerful incentives and drivers preventing a potential cross-over.

In sum, this study showed that CSR is meaningful and justifiable even if it is not profitable in the first place or implemented in and managed through formalised systems. This leads to two conclusions: first, care should be taken when emphasising the extrinsic approach in relation to social goods and second, the cost of a possible mismatch in a climate of ethical principles might be substantial for societies’ moral inclination.

This paper presents a framework for an improved understanding of actual internationalization motives. Answers to a key question in IB studies – why companies internationalize – contain considerable flaws. There are theoretical, disciplinary and methodological reasons for this state of affairs. In practice, the lacking attention for motivational constellations has serious repercussions for the theoretical sophistication of IB studies, lowering its managerial relevance.

Managers are confronted with many internationalization considerations simultaneously and, therefore, often have difficulty in recognizing themselves in extant approaches. The abstractions that many textbooks and academic papers present on the why question of corporate internationalization defy reality in case the various motivational trade-offs that managers face are not adequately addressed. This contribution presents a framework that is based on the identification of a number of motivational tensions that define the outcome of the actual internationalization strategies of companies: between intrinsic and extrinsic motives, between strategic intent and realization and between tactical and strategic considerations.

Dealing with these tensions at the same time provides a strong ground for explaining particular outcomes of the internationalization process in degrees of international coordination and integration.

The practical implication of the approach is a new conceptual framework that help scholars and managers understand complex configurations of internationalization motives better and thus come up with more realistic descriptions of what has actually influenced companies to adopt a particular internationalization strategy.

The paper presents a completely new combination of models to document the motivations and consequently the internationalization trajectories of companies. It is, however, also well founded in the literature, but it presents a fundamental account of some serious flaws in IB theory and practice.

The paper aims to investigate the relationship between firms’ motivation for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the moderating role of internationalisation.

The authors developed and tested a conceptual model based on a survey of 65 respondents from the Møre and Romsdal (M&R) maritime cluster. The M&R maritime cluster despite being national has strong interconnections to the global maritime industry and as such, presents a suitable context for testing our research model.

The findings show that firms’ intrinsic motivation drives CSR more than extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is understood as a firm engaging in CSR because it is the right thing to do and done out of one’s free will without compulsion or coercion. Extrinsic motivation relates to an action that is performed to achieve a separate outcome. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are found to be related and not mutually exclusive. The impact of intrinsic motivation on CSR was found to be contingent on the extent of the internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The key contribution of the study is the modelling of firms’ motivation for CSR activities and the contingent effect of internationalisation. In as much as companies perceive CSR activities as the right thing to do, the motive to do so also depends on the business case/profit motive. The study shows that SMEs’ intrinsic motivation is the driving force in CSR implementation and suggests that the urge by firms to give back to society is strengthened under conditions of high economic incentives and the firms’ degree of internationalisation.

This paper aims to apply concepts from “flow” paradigm to examine factors contributing to participation in entertainment and shopping activities at, and future patronage intent toward, entertainment shopping malls.

Data were collected from 342 consumers via mall intercepts conducted at two major entertainment shopping malls located in major metropolitan areas in the US states of Arizona and California. A self‐administered questionnaire was provided to subjects to complete while shopping at the mall. Data analysis was conducted using standard error of mean.

Supporting flow theory, results suggest that future mall patronage intention is most directly influenced by participation in mall entertainment activities followed by shopping activities. Entertainment and shopping participation are indirectly and positively influenced by patrons' intrinsic motivations, freedom of choice to patronize the mall, and perceptions of challenges and skills in participating in mall activities through their effects on mood states.

Results demonstrated that mall patrons do experience “flow‐like” mood states which influence activity levels in pursuing both mall entertainment and shopping. A study limitation included the focus on one mood state which pointed toward a need to investigate other mood states of mall shoppers.

This paper examines four antecedents, derived from flow theory, that may influence entertainment mall patrons' flow‐type mood states which, in turn, may drive their participation in mall shopping and entertainment activities.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that entrepreneurs are motivated not only by the desire to maximize profits but also by the desire for mastery. It then attempts to analyze the implications of mastery seeking for the economics and politics of government privileges and favors for businesses.

Using the existing psychological literature on mastery as motivation the paper first attempts to conceptualize how the desire for mastery manifests itself in the context of entrepreneurship. Next, it attempts to clarify the implications of this for the existing literature on the effects of government policies promoting cronyism.

The paper argues that in business mastery involves producing a good product or service, and validation of the performance occurs via the choices of sovereign consumers. Mastery is thus achieved through participation in a process of competition that is free from government favors. Given that crony polices can disrupt the consumer choice process and consequently the validation of performance, they can therefore affect the types of individuals who become entrepreneurs, with a high level of government intervention pushing success seekers to pursue mastery in other life endeavors, with adverse implications for innovation and growth in the economy.

The exploration of implications of a plausible but underexplored motive for entrepreneurs and the interaction between this motive and the effects of various policies fostering cronyism or rent seeking are potential contributions of the paper.

To analyse the web acceptance and usage between goal‐directed users and experiential users, incorporating intrinsic motives to improve the particular and explanatory TAM (technology acceptance model) value – traditionally related to extrinsic motives.

A survey instrument was used to gather data to test the relationships shown in the research model. Data were collected from a sample of online questionnaires filled out by subscribers located in three discussion‐mailing lists – administered by RedIris – about different topics (e.g. experimental sciences, social sciences and humanities). A structural equation modeling (SEM), specifically partial least squares (PLS), is proposed to assess the relationships between the constructs together with the predictive power of the research model.

The empirical development suggests that there is scope for further extension of TAM to adapt to the web‐based usage and its profitable consequences. The article may help to further the empirical research and to clarify and examine a web acceptance and usage model. In general, experiential and goal‐directed behaviours moderate the key relationships in the model. Experiential and goal‐directed users do not weigh extrinsic and intrinsic motives in the same way when on the web. Goal‐directed users are more driven by instrumental factors and focused on their decision‐making process while experiential users are more motivated by process..

First, constructs of enjoyment and concentration are used to define flow. However, because of the flow definition's conceptual‐vagueness, operationalising the flow construct has been questioned in the previous empirical works. Second, the cross‐sectional study is also an important limitation. Since the users' perception and intention can change over time, it is important to measure these quantities at several points of time. Third, the sample sizes are relatively small. Fourth, the model needs to be tested with more objective measures to compare possible divergences. Finally, the model clearly does not include all the relevant variables.

The results could be used to explain and to improve the experiential and goal‐directed users' experience of being and to return to the web.

The value of this study is to reveal the moderating influences of browsing‐modes on relationship between flow and TAM‐beliefs on the web, and, also, how the flow impacts the attitude and intention to use web between experiential and goal‐directed users.

With limited research on help-seeking in the social marketing domain, this research takes a unique perspective through the lens of McGuire’s psychological framework examining the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (or perceived help-seeking benefits) influencing help-seeking attitudes and behaviour in at-risk gamblers. This paper aims to examine the role that response efficacy has on the relationship between perceived help-seeking benefits and help-seeking behavioural intentions.

Study 1 used focus groups to explore the positive influence of help-seeking in at-risk gamblers. Studies 2 and 3 used online surveys to further test the direct and indirect impacts of perceived help-seeking benefits on attitudes and behavioural intentions. Structural equation modelling with multi-group analysis (low/high response efficacy) tested the hypotheses.

Both cognitive and affective psychological motives manifest as distinct intrinsic (well-being, self-esteem and self-control) and extrinsic motivators (social influence) that influence at-risk gamblers’ help-seeking attitudes and intentions to seek professional services. These perceived benefits influence help-seeking intentions directly (for those high in response efficacy) and indirectly via serial attitudinal mediators.

The results provide a guide for practitioners to enhance the promotion of professional help. Practitioners should develop marketing communication messages centred on the specific psychological needs of at-risk gamblers to encourage help-seeking behaviour including an emphasis on assertion, affiliation, independence, utilitarian, tension reduction, ego defence and consistency.

This research is the first, to the knowledge, to examine the psychological motivations that encourage help-seeking in at-risk gamblers, demonstrating that both preservation and growth motives influence help-seeking attitudes and the decision to act.

This paper aims to develop and validate a scale to measure knowledge-sharing motives at work. It is aimed to construct a scale which is explicitly different from knowledge-sharing behavior and to develop a comprehensive and domain-specific scale for this special kind of work motivation.

The constructed scale was tested in two studies. Survey data (n = 355) were used to perform an exploratory factor analysis. Results were further tested on survey data from the core public sector (n = 314) and the health sector (n = 315). A confirmatory factor analysis confirms the results in both samples. The developed scale was further validated internally and externally.

The analysis underlines that knowledge-sharing motivation and knowledge-sharing behavior are different constructs. The data suggest three dimensions of knowledge-sharing motives: appreciation, growth and altruism and tangible rewards. While it is suggested that the developed scale works in the public as well as the private sector context, it is found that knowledge sharing of public employees is merely driven by “growth and altruism” and “appreciation of coworkers.”

No comprehensive and reproducible scale to measure knowledge-sharing motives, which is different from behavior and domain-specific as well, was available in the literature. Therefore, such a scale has been constructed in this study. Furthermore, this study uses samples from different organizational sectors to deepen the understanding of knowledge sharing in context.

The current study aims to propose and empirically investigate a conceptual model of the most relevant antecedents and consequences of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) attribution, thus providing a practical and concise model as well as examining brand attachment as a mediator explaining the relationship between CSR attribution and its consequences.

A between-subjects experimental design was employed. The study included two experimental conditions; intrinsic and extrinsic CSR attribution and a control condition. An online self-administered survey was utilised for data collection. The sample was a convenience sample of 336 university students. Both one-way between-groups ANOVA and Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) were utilised for hypotheses testing.

The most significant antecedents of CSR attribution in order of importance are the firm's approach to CSR communication, past corporate social performance, CSR type and the firm's call for customers' participation in its CSR. CSR attribution exerted a significant direct positive impact on brand attachment and trust. Three significant indirect consequences of CSR attribution were PWOM intention, purchase intention and brand loyalty intention. Whereas trust played a significant mediating role between CSR attribution and its three indirect consequences, brand attachment exerted significant mediation only between CSR attribution and brand loyalty intention. Brand attachment might mediate the relationship between CSR attribution and purchase intention. However, brand attachment failed to play a mediating role between CSR attribution and PWOM intention.

Several studies marginally investigated CSR attribution. Despite the vital role of CSR attribution in how consumers receive firms' CSR engagement, the availability of CSR attribution-centric studies is limited. By introducing a model of the most relevant antecedents and consequences of CSR attribution, this study aids in understanding the psychological mechanism underlying consumers' CSR attribution and provides valuable implications.

The internationalization of retailing is increasing throughout the global service markets. Among many retail formats, the discount store is one of the fastest growing formats actively engaging internationalization. In managing retail firms in other cultures, understanding of local customers’ perceptions toward the retail formats is especially important. Shopping motives may be a function of retail format, cultural, economic and social environment. Prior studies on shopping motives, however, have focused on Western cultures and on a shopping mall format. This study provides an exploratory examination of Korean discount shoppers’ shopping motives and their shopping typologies based on their shopping motives. A total of 624 questionnaires were administered to married female discount shoppers in Korea using the intercept survey method, and 467 completed questionnaires were available for data analysis. Factor analysis identified three shopping motives for patronizing discount stores: socialization, diversion and utilitarian. Four groups were identified using cluster analysis and labeled as leisurely‐motivated shoppers (n =152, 34.1 percent), socially‐motivated shoppers (n=49, 11.0 percent), utilitarian shoppers (n=132, 29.6 percent) and shopping‐apathetic shoppers (n=113, 25.3 percent). The four groups significantly differ in their appraisals of patronized store in some of store attributes, repatronage intention, and money spent in a shopping trip. Typologies of each cluster, discount retailing environments and managerial implications are discussed based on findings.