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Monetary Rewards, Intrinsic Motivators, and Work Engagement in the IT‐Enabled Sharing Economy: A Mixed‐Methods Investigation of Internet Taxi Drivers*
Author(s) -
Hua Ying,
Cheng Xusen,
Hou Tingting,
Luo Rob
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
decision sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.238
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1540-5915
pISSN - 0011-7315
DOI - 10.1111/deci.12372
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , work engagement , incentive , sharing economy , self determination theory , autonomy , business , crowding out , work (physics) , the internet , marketing , economics , microeconomics , political science , computer science , mechanical engineering , world wide web , engineering , paleontology , law , monetary economics , biology
The IT‐enabled sharing economy has enabled the taxi to become an Internet product, forming a popular new phenomenon in people's daily lives and creating new roles for employees. How the Internet taxi drivers’ work engagement is influenced in the context of the IT‐enabled sharing economy has become an interesting new area for IS researchers to explore. Although monetary rewards are important for employees’ behavior and performance, extant studies primarily emphasize the crowding‐out and crowding‐in effects of financial incentives, rather than the influencing mechanism. This article prospects and develops theoretically the effects of monetary rewards and workplace spirituality on work engagement and demonstrates these effects empirically. An analysis of 35 semistructured interviews revealed three intrinsic motivators: stress reduction, job autonomy, and self‐efficacy. We propose a structural model based upon motivation crowding theory. Responses to 235 survey responses showed that work engagement can be improved by providing monetary rewards and enhancing workplace spirituality through intrinsic motivators. This research contributes to exploring the mediating role of intrinsic motivators, extends motivation crowding theory to a new research field, and provides a new perspective on work engagement in the context of the IT‐enabled sharing economy. Our findings extend the previous research associated with workplace spirituality and the existing knowledge of operations management from the perspective of labor intensity and trade‐off between inputs and outputs.