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The COVID-19 pandemic has generated unprecedented public fear, impeding both individuals’ social life and the travel industry as a whole. China was one of the first major countries to experience the COVID-19 outbreaks and recovery from the pandemic. The demand for outings is increasing in the post-COVID-19 world, leading to the recovery of the ride-sharing industry. Integrating protection motivation theory and the theory of reasoned action, this study aims to investigate ride-sharing customers’ self-protection motivation to provide anti-pandemic measures and promote the resilience of ride-sharing industry.

This study followed a two-phase mixed-methods design. In the first phase, the authors executed a qualitative study with 30 interviews. In the second phase, the authors used the results of the interviews to inform the design of a survey, with which 272 responses were collected. Both studies were conducted in China.

The present results indicate that customers’ perceived vulnerability of COVID-19 and perceived COVID protection efficacy (self-efficacy and response efficacy) are positively correlated with their attitude toward self-protection, thus leading to their self-protection motivation during the rides. Moreover, subjective norms and customers’ distrust appear to also impact their self-protection motivation during the ride-sharing service.

The present research provides one of the first in-depth studies, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, on customers’ protection motivation in ride-sharing services in the new normal. The empirical evidence provides important insights for ride-sharing service providers and managers in the post-pandemic world and promote the resilience of ride-sharing industry.

Physical activity (PA) has been widely studied for its individual and societal benefits, but research on how organisations can effectively promote workplace physical activity (WPA) programmes is lacking. This article aims to examine the organisational-level benefits and value drivers of corporate PA programmes whilst also exploring the factors that motivate employees to participate in these programmes.

The authors used the self-determination theory (SDT) and the Hungarian Sport Motivation Scale (H-SMS) – which was modified and validated from the original English SMS scale, which is one of the six most highly cited motivation questionnaires in sports – to assess employees' motivation towards sports. In conjunction, in-depth interviews with company representatives were conducted to create a mind map outlining the impacts and advantages of WPA programmes. The study involved interviews with 13 managers in Hungary and a survey completed by 728 employees.

The findings of the authors' study indicate that WPA programmes had positive effects on employee engagement, turnover reduction and absenteeism. However, the authors' results also revealed that employee motivation to participate in these programmes was primarily driven by external factors, such as identified and introjected regulators, indicating a low level of intrinsic motivation for sports in the workplace. It is important to classify employees based on their motivation and behaviour to design and promote effective PA programmes in the workplace and to increase participation rates.

The authors' findings indicate the importance of aligning WPA programme promotion with employee motivation. This can encourage organisations to initiate their programmes, address participation challenges and strive for higher engagement rates. Further research on employee motivation can support the development of more effective communication strategies for companies in this context.

Crowd logistics is a rising phenomenon in last-mile delivery that integrates technological applications and sources a large number of participants to do logistical activities, achieving sustainable shipping in urban environments. However, up until now, there has been limited literature in this field. This research aims to investigate the extrinsic and intrinsic factors that impact the participative behaviour of driver-partners in crowd logistics.

An integrated model is developed based on motivation theory, incorporating attitude as a contributor to both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. A questionnaire was constructed and distributed to collect data from 303 respondents who are existing or potential driver-partners in Vietnam.

Our findings confirm (1) the influence of monetary rewards on extrinsic motivation and (2) the power of self-efficacy, trust and sense of belonging on intrinsic motivation. Further, we find that attitude positively impacts extrinsic motivation, whereas there is no effect between attitude and intrinsic motivation. Both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations are demonstrated to significantly influence driver-partners' participative intentions. Additionally, a positive association is found between extrinsic and intrinsic motivations.

Findings from this study theoretically enrich the literature on crowd logistics, especially on the supply side, and empirically contribute to implications that are valuable to crowd logistics firms on driver-partner recruitment and business strategy development.

Enterprises build online product community to expect users to contribute: opinion sharing (content contribution) and product consumption (product contribution). Previous literature rarely focused on both. The purpose of this paper is to explain user contribution mechanism by identifying content contribution and product contribution.

This research chose Xiaomi-hosted online product community (bbs.xiaomi.cn) and Huawei-hosted online product community (club.huawei.com) where users can freely share ideas and buy products at the same time. Data were crawled from 109,665 community users to construct dependent variable measurement, and 611 questionnaires were used to verify research hypotheses.

The results indicate that both cognitive needs and personal integration needs have a significant positive impact on browse behavior; social integration needs and hedonic needs have a significant positive impact on content contribution behavior. Browse behavior not only directly affects but also indirectly influences product contribution through content contribution behavior.

Findings of this research provide community managers with useful insights into the relationship between content contribution and product contribution.

This study explains the formation mechanism of user product contribution and reveals the relationship between user content contribution and product contribution in online product community. This paper provides a different way of theorizing user contributions by incorporating uses and gratifications theory into the “Motivation-Behavior-Result” framework.

This study established and examined a moderated mediation model connecting family motivation with proactive career behavior (PCB). Drawing on social cognitive career theory model of career self-management and person-environment fit theory, the authors posit that the influence of family motivation on PCB is mediated by career goal setting (CGS) and moderated by career support climate (CSC).

Using multilevel modeling techniques, data were collected from 98 leaders and 416 employees at two-time points.

Results show that family motivation has a positive direct and indirect effect on PCB through CGS. Additionally, CSC strengthens the positive effect of family motivation on PCB through CGS.

For employees, proactive career management and the establishment of clear career goals are vital for fulfilling family responsibilities. Simultaneously, for managers and organizations, creating a supportive work environment is crucial to encourage employees in career management.

While existing research highlights the detrimental effect of fulfilling family caregiving responsibilities on employees' career development, the comprehension of this relationship remains limited. Taking a family motivation perspective, this study explores the mechanisms through which family motivation stimulates employees to engage in PCB, with a specific focus on the moderating influence of CSC. The findings offer fresh insights into the role of family motivation in career development, contributing significantly to the broader literature on the intersection of family and careers.

Building on the theory of brand psychological ownership, this paper aims to explore the mediating role of brand psychological ownership in the relationship between brand personality (innocence/coolness) and consumers’ preferences, as well as identify the boundary conditions of this relationship.

To test the hypotheses, a series of four experiments were conducted in Wuhan, a city in southern China, using questionnaires administered at two universities and two supermarkets. Hypotheses were tested using PLS-SEM in SmartPLS 4.

The results indicate that brand personality, specifically the dimensions of innocence and coolness, has a significant impact on consumers’ brand preferences. Brands with a cool personality are preferred over those with an innocent personality. Moreover, the relationship between brand personality and consumers’ brand preferences is moderated by power motivation and identity centrality.

This study contributes to the literature by differentiating between brand personality of innocence and coolness as two separate constructs and proposing brand psychological ownership as a mechanism through which brand personality affects brand preferences. The study’s samples were drawn from universities and supermarkets in southern China, providing evidence for the significant moderating effects of power motivation and identity centrality on consumers’ brand preferences.

Based on achievement motivation theory and two-factor theory, this research aimed to synergize cooperative goal interdependence (refer to possessing incentive factors) and illegitimate tasks (refer to the absence of security factors) and build a triple interaction model in the process of performance pressure affecting employees’ thriving at work.

This research collected 291 valid data through a two-point time-lagged method to test the direct effect of performance pressure on employees’ thriving at work and its moderating mechanism.

Performance pressure has a significant positive effect on employees’ thriving at work. Cooperative goal interdependence imposes an enhanced moderating effect between performance pressure and employees’ thriving at work. Illegitimate task imposes an interfering moderating effect between performance pressure and employees’ thriving at work and further interferes the enhanced moderating effect of cooperative goal interdependence.

Under the premise of advocating for employees to internalize performance pressure originating from the organizational performance management system into their own achievement motivation, leaders should establish incentive systems and security systems for employees to realize self-achievement through the process of goal management and task management.

This research confirmed the joint determination of incentive effect and insecurity effect on employees’ achievement motivation by cooperative goal interdependence and illegitimate task and revealed the boundary conditions of employees’ choice of thriving at work.

The current advancements in technologies and the internet industry provide users with many innovative digital devices for entertainment, communication and trade. However, simultaneous development and the rising sophistication of cybercrimes bring new challenges. Micro businesses use technology like how people use it at home, but face higher cyber risks during riskier transactions, with human error playing a significant role. Moreover, information security researchers have often studied individuals’ adherence to compliance behaviour in response to cyber threats. The study aims to examine the protection motivation theory (PMT)-based model to understand individuals’ tendency to adopt secure behaviours.

The study focuses on Australian micro businesses since they are more susceptible to cyberattacks due to the least security measures in place. Out of 877 questionnaires distributed online to Australian micro business owners through survey panel provider “Dynata,” 502 (N = 502) complete responses were included. Structural equational modelling was used to analyse the relationships among the variables.

The results indicate that all constructs of the protection motivation, except threat susceptibility, successfully predict the user protective behaviours. Also, increased cybersecurity costs negatively impact users’ safe cyber practices.

The study has critical implications for understanding micro business owners’ cyber security behaviours. The study contributes to the current knowledge of cyber security in micro businesses through the lens of PMT.

Internal workplace coaches are employees who, in addition to their main job, volunteer to provide coaching to work colleagues who are not their direct reports. The purpose of this paper is to explore what motivates these individuals to volunteer to be an internal workplace coach and to continue carrying out the role.

To explore the experiences of internal coaches, a questionnaire was devised and issued; it attracted 484 responses – the largest survey response to date from this population. Following analysis of the questionnaire data, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 20 internal coaches from private, public and not-for-profit UK organisations. The responses were analysed in relation to motivation theory, principally self-determination theory.

Individuals were motivated to volunteer for the role, and to continue to practise as coaches, in the most part to satisfy intrinsic needs for competence, relatedness and autonomy. The research presents rich information about how coaches perceived these needs were satisfied by coaching. In general, there were only moderate or poor levels of support and recognition for individual coaches within their organisation, indicating limited extrinsic motivation.

The practical implications are that organisations can draw on the findings from this study to motivate individuals to volunteer to be internal coaches and to continue to act in that role.

Many organisations use internal coaches, but there is very little research into what motivates these volunteers.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the influence mechanism of social innovation education (SIE) on sustainability learning outcomes and analyze the roles of intrinsic learning motivation and prosocial motivation.

A sample of 322 undergraduates from one higher education institution in Tianjin was used to test the hypotheses.

This study found that SIE positively affected sustainability learning outcomes, and intrinsic learning motivation mediated the relationship between them. The results showed that prosocial motivation positively moderates the positive effect of SIE on intrinsic learning motivation and the overall mediation model.

The findings have important practical implications for higher education institutions to carry out SIE. Higher education institutions should focus on integrating social innovation and sustainability into top-level design. Furthermore, higher education institutions should focus on stimulating students’ intrinsic learning motivation and cultivating their prosocial motivation.

This study identified the relationship between SIE and sustainability learning outcomes and clarified the influence mechanism of SIE on sustainability learning outcomes. Moreover, this study emphasized the importance of prosocial motivation as a key boundary condition of SIE.