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We review the interventions that promote motivation in academic contexts, with a focus on two primary questions: How can we motivate students to take more STEM courses? Once in those STEM courses, how can we keep students motivated and promote their academic achievement?

We have approached these two motivational questions from several perspectives, examining the theoretical issues with basic laboratory research, conducting longitudinal questionnaire studies in classrooms, and developing interventions implemented in different STEM contexts. Our research is grounded in three theories that we believe are complementary: expectancy-value theory (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002), interest theory (Hidi & Renninger, 2006), and self-affirmation theory (Steele, 1988). As social psychologists, we have focused on motivational theory and used experimental methods, with an emphasis on values – students’ perceptions of the value of academic tasks and students’ personal values that shape their experiences in academic contexts.

We review the experimental field studies in high-school science and college psychology classes, in which utility-value interventions promoted interest and performance for high-school students in science classes and for undergraduate students in psychology courses. We also review a randomized intervention in which parents received information about the utility value of math and science for their teens in high school; this intervention led students to take nearly one semester more of science and mathematics, compared with the control group. Finally, we review an experimental study of values affirmation in a college biology course and found that the intervention improved performance and retention for first-generation college students, closing the social-class achievement gap by 50%. We conclude by discussing the mechanisms through which these interventions work.

These interventions are exciting for their broad applicability in improving students’ academic choices and performance, they are also exciting regarding their potential for contributions to basic science. The combination of laboratory experiments and field experiments is advancing our understanding of the motivational principles and almost certainly will continue to do so. At the same time, interventions may benefit from becoming increasingly targeted at specific motivational processes that are effective with particular groups or in particular contexts.

This study aims to test Lamberton and Rose’s (2012) commercial sharing utility model of access-based consumption use in three different contexts: car-sharing, room-sharing and household goods purchases. More importantly, this research extends the model by examining the effects of emerging adulthood as a life-stage on perceived value of social applications that facilitate and promote transaction utility, called shareaids.

A questionnaire designed to evaluate the effects of emerging adulthood and sharing utilities on intention to use sharing services was developed and administered to 345 respondents at a Midwestern US university. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Results indicate that flexibility utility had the strongest direct impact on intention to use sharing consumption while also having indirect effects in all contexts examined. The emerging adulthood life-stage was found to affect transaction utility and shareaids as predicted, and shareaids positively influenced consumers’ perception of the social utility value of access-based consumption.

The generalizability of this study is limited by its use of a student sample. Also, the study suffers from inherent limitations linked to self-reported survey research.

Sharing services that have a strong social component could use shareaids to gain a competitive advantage. Examples of shareaid application include split bills for multiple payments to split fares among friends and social media transaction tools. Shareaid applications can enhance consumers’ perception of social value and the overall shareability value of the sharing service.

This is the first known study to test the effects of emerging adulthood as a life-stage on perceived value of social applications that facilitate and promote transaction utility, called shareaids.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the significant role that brand, beauty and utility play in defining property value.

Beyond introducing the idea that property value is composed of brand, beauty and utility, the factors that comprise these three components of property value are explored. The relative contributions that brand, beauty and utility make to understanding the source of property value are examined through empirical research evaluating the perceptions of the relative contributions that each of these three factors make to property value, based on the analysis of data on some 55 single family residential properties drawn from throughout the world.

The findings explain reasons why certain properties command premium prices, relative to other properties. As commerce prioritizes branding in merchandising generally – and especially for luxury goods – that brand would assume a growing significant role in property markets is not surprising.

These findings challenge traditional thinking and introduce a new, powerful explanation of the source of property values.

To investigate the application of multi‐attribute utility theory (MAUT) to aid in the decision‐making process when performing benchmarking gap analysis.

MAUT is selected to identify the overall best‐in‐class (BIC) performer for performance metrics involving inventory record accuracy within a public sector warehouse. A traditional benchmarking analysis is conducted on 14 industry warehouse participants to determine industry best practices for the four critical warehouse metrics of picking and inventory accuracy, storage speed, and order cycle time. Inventory and picking tolerances are also investigated in the study. A gap analysis is performed on the critical metrics and the absolute BIC is used to measure performance gaps for each metric. The gap analysis results are then compared to the MAUT utility values, and a sensitivity analysis is performed to compare the two methods.

The results indicate that an approach based on MAUT is advantageous in its ability to consider all critical metrics in a benchmarking study. The MAUT approach allows the assignment of priorities and analyzes the subjectivity for these decisions, and provides a framework to identify one performer as best across all critical metrics.

This research study uses the additive utility theory (AUT) which is only one of multiple decision theory techniques.

A new approach to determine the best performer in a benchmarking study.

Traditional benchmarking studies use gap analysis to identify a BIC performer over a single critical metric. This research integrates a mathematically driven decision analysis technique to determine the overall best performer over multiple critical metrics.

We review the experimental evidence on risk aversion in controlled laboratory settings. We review the strengths and weaknesses of alternative elicitation procedures, the strengths and weaknesses of alternative estimation procedures, and finally the effect of controlling for risk attitudes on inferences in experiments.

This paper aims to provide a cost effective failure mode and effects analysis tool to overcome the disadvantages of the traditional FMEA that the cost due to failure is not defined.

The method presented in this paper is based on the fuzzy utility theory. It uses utility theory and fuzzy membership functions for the assessment of severity, occurrence, and detection. The utility theory accounts for the nonlinear relationship between the cost due to failure and the ordinal ranking. The application of fuzzy membership functions better represents the team opinions. The Risk Priority Index (RPI) is developed for the prioritization of failure modes.

The advantages of the FUT‐based FMEA are demonstrated through cases studies. It shows that it can take the cost due to failure into account when prioritizing failure modes.

The FUT‐based FMEA presented in this paper provides a convenient cost‐effective tool for failure analysis. It improves the performance FMEA in the risk and failure analysis for product design and manufacturing/assembly process.

The sheer volume of decisions taken within the public sector procurement process prevents perfect and complete information being obtained and applied to every best value tender analysis that is carried out. As such, uncertainty must be accepted as a feature of the best value decision‐making process. This paper reports research which is developing a methodology for utilising the uncertainty component in best value tender analysis in order to create a more transparent decision making process. The main output of the research is the production of a robust support tool which aids the multi objective decision making process within the public sector of the UK construction industry by provoking rational discussion with respect to; the industry’s key performance indicators (KPIs), the client’s attitude to risk and provides a transparent audit trail of the decisions taken. The underlying rationale for the support tool is based on a combination of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Multi‐Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT) and Whole Life Costing (WLC). The paper demonstrates the practical utility of the methodology of the tool through a tender decision process.

Government‐owned utility systems at many locations are old, obsolete, and unreliable. Replacement of these systems has become more technically and operationally complex, thereby making them more difficult for personnel to operate and maintain. In response, some governmental agencies are conveying ownership of these systems to the private sector through utility privatization as a way to efficiently operate and upgrade them. For utility privatization to be successful though, independent audits are necessary to ensure desired quantitative and qualitative factors are balanced. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.

The paper explains how the value‐focused thinking (VFT) methodology was used to develop a multi‐objective decision analysis (MODA) model to determine the effectiveness of utility privatization efforts.

The VFT MODA model was determined to be a suitable tool to evaluate a complex decision problem such as utility system evaluation. The model captured 28 values and 47 measures relating to utility privatization program's objective of improving the overall quality, reliability, and responsiveness of utility systems.

The VFT MODA model lacks real‐world data for evaluation, senior leader stakeholder input and a value and measure to evaluate energy efficiency.

The paper provides organizations faced with utility privatization decisions with an effective decision‐analysis tool.

The paper explores the first documented use of VFT to assist organizations and governments in providing insight into the performance of its privatized utility systems.

Suppose that an isolated colonist has just reaped his grain crop. The yield is five full sacks. He destines each sack for a specific purpose: the first sackful of grain must serve him to survive, the second one to keep him in full strength, the third will serve as fodder for his poultry, enabling him to enrich his diet with meat. He plans to use the fourth for distilling corn brandy, a luxury to him. For lack of better he destines the fifth sackful of grain for feeding his parrots: their antics amuse him. So, unmistakably, the five uses are of diminishing importance to him.