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The purpose of the paper is to propose and demonstrate a novel approach for addressing the challenges of path planning and obstacle avoidance in the context of mobile robots (MR). The specific objectives and purposes outlined in the paper include: introducing a new methodology that combines Q-learning with dynamic reward to improve the efficiency of path planning and obstacle avoidance. Enhancing the navigation of MR through unfamiliar environments by reducing blind exploration and accelerating the convergence to optimal solutions and demonstrating through simulation results that the proposed method, dynamic reward-enhanced Q-learning (DRQL), outperforms existing approaches in terms of achieving convergence to an optimal action strategy more efficiently, requiring less time and improving path exploration with fewer steps and higher average rewards.

The design adopted in this paper to achieve its purposes involves the following key components: (1) Combination of Q-learning and dynamic reward: the paper’s design integrates Q-learning, a popular reinforcement learning technique, with dynamic reward mechanisms. This combination forms the foundation of the approach. Q-learning is used to learn and update the robot’s action-value function, while dynamic rewards are introduced to guide the robot’s actions effectively. (2) Data accumulation during navigation: when a MR navigates through an unfamiliar environment, it accumulates experience data. This data collection is a crucial part of the design, as it enables the robot to learn from its interactions with the environment. (3) Dynamic reward integration: dynamic reward mechanisms are integrated into the Q-learning process. These mechanisms provide feedback to the robot based on its actions, guiding it to make decisions that lead to better outcomes. Dynamic rewards help reduce blind exploration, which can be time-consuming and inefficient and promote faster convergence to optimal solutions. (4) Simulation-based evaluation: to assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach, the design includes a simulation-based evaluation. This evaluation uses simulated environments and scenarios to test the performance of the DRQL method. (5) Performance metrics: the design incorporates performance metrics to measure the success of the approach. These metrics likely include measures of convergence speed, exploration efficiency, the number of steps taken and the average rewards obtained during the robot’s navigation.

The findings of the paper can be summarized as follows: (1) Efficient path planning and obstacle avoidance: the paper’s proposed approach, DRQL, leads to more efficient path planning and obstacle avoidance for MR. This is achieved through the combination of Q-learning and dynamic reward mechanisms, which guide the robot’s actions effectively. (2) Faster convergence to optimal solutions: DRQL accelerates the convergence of the MR to optimal action strategies. Dynamic rewards help reduce the need for blind exploration, which typically consumes time and this results in a quicker attainment of optimal solutions. (3) Reduced exploration time: the integration of dynamic reward mechanisms significantly reduces the time required for exploration during navigation. This reduction in exploration time contributes to more efficient and quicker path planning. (4) Improved path exploration: the results from the simulations indicate that the DRQL method leads to improved path exploration in unknown environments. The robot takes fewer steps to reach its destination, which is a crucial indicator of efficiency. (5) Higher average rewards: the paper’s findings reveal that MR using DRQL receive higher average rewards during their navigation. This suggests that the proposed approach results in better decision-making and more successful navigation.

The paper’s originality stems from its unique combination of Q-learning and dynamic rewards, its focus on efficiency and speed in MR navigation and its ability to enhance path exploration and average rewards. These original contributions have the potential to advance the field of mobile robotics by addressing critical challenges in path planning and obstacle avoidance.

Intrinsic motivation affects job satisfaction and turnover intention. Still, previous motivational studies among real estate brokers (brokers) have primarily focused on extrinsic rewards, leaving intrinsic rewards/motivation practically unexplored. The purpose of this study is therefore to evaluate the role of both satisfaction with intrinsic rewards (SIR) and satisfaction with extrinsic rewards (SER) on job satisfaction and turnover intention among Swedish brokers.

This article is a replication, more precisely an empirical generalization and extension, of Mosquera et al.’s (2020) study conducted among brokers in Portugal. Using a sample of 910 Swedish brokers, the study analyzes a conceptual framework and tests hypotheses by using partial least squares (PLS).

Results indicate that SIR has a very strong impact on job satisfaction, which is not the case in the Portuguese sample. On the other hand, SER does not have an impact on job satisfaction, which is the case in the Portuguese sample. SIR does not have an impact on turnover intention in the Swedish sample, whereas SER does. Job satisfaction has twice the positive impact on turnover intention in the Swedish sample compared to the Portuguese. Furthermore, job satisfaction mediates the relationship between SIR/SER and turnover intention.

Findings of this study extend the existing literature of satisfaction with extrinsic and in particular intrinsic rewards on job satisfaction and turnover intention in the context of the brokerage industry. The most interesting difference between the samples is that Swedish brokers display much higher levels of satisfaction with intrinsic rewards. On the other hand, Swedish brokers appear to be less driven by extrinsic rewards, which is not in line with prior studies within brokerage.

Both managers and students planning to become brokers should consider that SIR has a stronger impact on job satisfaction than SER. What are perceived as intrinsic rewards, however, is highly subjective, which is troublesome from a managerial perspective, even more so as SIR is much harder to influence than SER. Given that intrinsic motivation is primarily a consequence of needs fulfillment, screening of applicants for person-job fit ought to increase job satisfaction and reduce turnover given its focus on the congruence between job demands and worker’s needs, respectively, what a job provides and the worker’s needs.

This study contributes to the brokerage research field by indicating that being a broker differs substantially between countries and that intrinsic rewards matter for Swedish brokers.

This study explores whether expatriation type (assigned expatriates (AEs) versus self-initiated expatriates (SIEs)) is linked to job exhaustion via possible differences in required efforts for their jobs and the rewards they gain from them, and/or the balance between efforts and rewards. Adopting effort–reward imbalance (ERI) and job demands/resources (JD-R) theories, the authors study the possible role of ERI as a mediator between expatriation type and job exhaustion.

An online survey was carried out in co-operation with two Finnish trade unions, providing representative data from 484 assigned and SIEs. The authors test this study’s hypotheses through latent structural equation modelling, and the analysis was conducted with Stata 17.0 software.

The results show that ERI between them are correlated with the job exhaustion of expatriates in general and there are no direct links between expatriation type and job exhaustion. The required effort from AEs was higher than that from SIEs though no difference was found for rewards, and the match between effort demands and rewards is less favourable for AEs than SIEs. AEs experienced higher job exhaustion than SIEs because of the higher effort demands and greater imbalance between efforts and rewards.

The study examines the work well-being of two types of expatriates and explores the underlying mechanisms that may explain why they may differ from each other.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether organizational support for innovation and informational extrinsic rewards moderate the relationship between intrinsic motivation and innovative work behavior.

Multiple and hierarchical regression analyses based on data from 150 knowledge workers tested the hypotheses for a South African sample.

The results confirmed a positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and innovative work behavior, and found positive relationships between both organizational support for innovation and informational extrinsic rewards and innovative work behavior. While organizational support positively moderated the relationship between intrinsic motivation and innovative work behavior, acting in synergy with intrinsic motivation, informational extrinsic rewards had a negative moderating effect.

When organizations want to encourage knowledge workers to generate, promote and realize innovative ideas, they should create an environment that encourages autonomy, competence and relatedness, with support for creativity and differences of ideas.

The study provides new indications of the interactions of synergistic extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation to affect innovative work behavior.

The paper is to explore crowdfunding success determinants from the reward menu design aspect, distinguishing from extant studies focusing on characteristics of project creators or crowdfunding projects and funding dynamics. Both the number of reward options and price differentiation of rewards are considered.

The authors use the quadratic model to identify a curvilinear relationship between the number of reward options and crowdfunding success, by running regressions on data collected from one of the most influential reward-based crowdfunding platforms in China. In addition, they explore the moderating effect of price differentiation on the curvilinear relationship.

The authors find an inverted U-shape relationship between the number of reward options and the optimal number of options is around 10. In addition, they find that the curvilinear relationship is moderated by reward price differentiation.

This paper has managerial implications for crowdfunding project creators and platform managers. To achieve better crowdfunding outcomes, a proper number of reward options with diversified reward prices should be provided.

The paper contributes to the literatures in antecedents of crowdfunding success from reward menu design aspect based on theories in investment and purchasing decision making. It is different from existing studies focusing on the characteristics of project creators and crowdfunding projects or funding dynamics. It also parallels retirement contribution plan design studies by exploring the reward menu design in the crowdfunding context.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of total rewards on retention. The finding relies on need satisfaction approach as a mechanism. This is done by investigating the role of need satisfaction of “autonomy, competence and relatedness” as possible mediators between elements of total rewards and retention.

This paper focussed on exploring the literature published in various popular databases .Based on the conceptual analysis, a set of possible frameworks linking the three constructs has been stated for future research.

The research has evolved with few possible frameworks to model the assertions by investigating and corroborating it with quantitative studies to be empirically tested.

The originality lies in applying self-determination theory framework of need satisfaction mechanism in explaining the relationships between total rewards and retention, thereby adding new insights to the employee retention literature.

This conceptual paper focuses on a common observation in the implementation stage of reward-based crowdfunding (RBC) – entrepreneurs' failures and delays in delivery of rewards to investors, which, in turn, may be perceived as violations of reward delivery obligations.

Drawing on entrepreneurial personality theory and psychological contract theory, this paper develops propositions and identifies factors related to both entrepreneurs (overconfidence and narcissism) and factors related to investors (types of motivators and psychological contracts) that may explain the perceived violations of reward delivery obligations. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.

The theoretical analysis, by wielding two independently developed literatures, has demonstrated that it is important to investigate factors that are related to both investors and entrepreneurs in understanding issues and challenges at different stages of the RBC model. The authors believe that the current analysis provides an integrated understanding and a solid foundation for researchers to further examine these issues by empirically testing these propositions.

The authors examined two previously understudied psychological factors in the context of RBC – entrepreneurial traits, mainly overconfidence and narcissism, and the type of psychological contracts formed between investors and entrepreneurs, both of which, according to McKenny et al. (2017), need greater attention from researchers studying crowdfunding.

This study aims to define the parameters of the reward-risk principle in Islamic finance as established in the literature and discuss propositions that are presented on how such a principle is to be applied to Islamic banking products.

A descriptive approach is used to explore the normative parameters and criticisms of the application of reward-risk in Islamic finance.

The study finds that the principle of reward-risk is embodied in the multi-component concept of ʿiwaḍ (counter value) which must be evident in market transactions that involve commercial exchanges. The components include risk, costs, effort, value-adding and capital, all of which apply uniquely to different contractual forms of financing.

The study uses academic literature and industry documents along with modest contact with prominent practitioners who provided general feedback on prevalent Islamic finance industry practices.

This study exposits the variety of approaches in applying the reward-risk principle and sheds light on the primary elements of the principle which will facilitate its greater consideration by the Islamic finance industry.

This study is a meaningful attempt at conveniently summing up and applying the parameters that are considered when discussing the scope of the reward-risk principle in Islamic finance.

Loyalty programs (LPs) in a business-to-business (B2B) context have been under-researched when compared to consumer markets. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if and to what extent the loyalty program activity (LPA) based on recency, frequency and monetary framework reflects the effectiveness of a specific LP.

Using the data obtained from 818 business customers enrolled in a LP, logistic regression models are run to find the impact of LPA on the company’s sales.

The results suggest that in a linear LP, the frequency of rewards impacts sales the most, compared to recency and amount of points redeemed. The intensity of a LPA is influencing the expected sales in a company.

The current study is not focused on the redemption patterns and the value of the rewards offered in the program. Limitation of the study only to one country and in a single company does not allow to generalize presented findings.

Companies should focus their efforts on defining the best level of frequency rewards in their LPs. Reward timing should be considered as a factor that influences the change in customer purchasing behavior more than the amount of points accumulated.

The research provides empirical evidence to support the highest influence of frequency of rewards on sales, compared to recency and amount of points redeemed. This is one of the few LP studies conducted in the context of the B2B market.

This paper aims to explore how and why salespeople enhance or hinder long-term business-to-business (B2B) customer relationships at the interpersonal level by considering self-disclosure and relational cost and reward evaluations.

Data from interviews (N = 47) with B2B sales professionals were analyzed, focusing on the shift of the phases in long-term B2B customer relationships.

Long-term B2B customer relationships evolve at the interpersonal level through a process of continuous relational cost and reward evaluation, self-disclosure and business disclosure in three phases: becoming business partners, collaborative partners and collaborative and personal partners. The reward evaluations progress from being business related to including even more relational benefits. Disclosure progresses through general business disclosure and general self-disclosure; strategic business disclosure and personal life self-disclosure; and synergistic business disclosure and private self-disclosure.

The long-term B2B customer relationships could be studied at the interpersonal level from the customer’s perspective. Self-disclosure could be studied in cross-cultural settings as well as gender differences should be considered in future studies. Business and social penetration theory could be applied to investigate different types of relationships and other professional relationships, such as those between employers and employees. It would be important to test whether the business-related and self-disclosure subtypes apply to the development of other types of professional relationships or whether other disclosure subtypes exist. The authors recommend exploring salespeople’s and customers’ privacy management strategies in multiple communication channels.

Managers may apply the results of this study in their customer relationship management and sales training.

The findings outline a contextual extension of social penetration theory.