TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘Gold’, ‘Ribbon’ or ‘Puzzle’
T2 - What motivates researchers to work in Research and Technology Organizations
AU - Suominen, Arho
AU - Kauppinen, Henni
AU - Hyytinen, Kirsi
N1 - Funding Information:
Dr. Arho Suominen , Ph.D., is a principal scientist at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and an Industry professor at Tampere University (Finland). Dr. Suominen’s research focuses on qualitative and quantitative assessment of innovation systems with a special focus on quantitative methods. His prior research has been funded by the European Commission via H2020, the Academy of Finland, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology, the Turku University Foundation and the Fulbright Finland Foundation. Through the Fulbright program, Dr. Suominen worked as a visiting scholar for the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Suominen has a Doctor of Science (Tech.) degree from the University of Turku and holds an Officers basic degree from the National Defence University of Finland.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - This paper employs the motivational trichotomy of financial rewards, reputational rewards, and intrinsic satisfaction (gold, ribbon, and puzzle) to analyze the role of motivation in the context of research and technology organizations. This research is based on a case study that used an online questionnaire survey of 421 scientists from a large multi-technology Research and Technology Organization. The paper draws from previous work on scientists’ orientations toward outcomes and exploitation of research results and finds that the typology of motivational schemes differ. In the study's context, our analysis did not find advancing academic research to be the main motivator, but rather being able to exploit results. However, within the exploitation mode, the results show that all four factors, gold, challenge, engineering, and basic research, motivate researchers’ activities. The study highlights the Research and Technology Organizations’ differences compared to universities. The findings also suggest that the role of grand societal challenges is emerging as a distinct motivator, aside from a basic research-oriented advancement of science.
AB - This paper employs the motivational trichotomy of financial rewards, reputational rewards, and intrinsic satisfaction (gold, ribbon, and puzzle) to analyze the role of motivation in the context of research and technology organizations. This research is based on a case study that used an online questionnaire survey of 421 scientists from a large multi-technology Research and Technology Organization. The paper draws from previous work on scientists’ orientations toward outcomes and exploitation of research results and finds that the typology of motivational schemes differ. In the study's context, our analysis did not find advancing academic research to be the main motivator, but rather being able to exploit results. However, within the exploitation mode, the results show that all four factors, gold, challenge, engineering, and basic research, motivate researchers’ activities. The study highlights the Research and Technology Organizations’ differences compared to universities. The findings also suggest that the role of grand societal challenges is emerging as a distinct motivator, aside from a basic research-oriented advancement of science.
KW - Knowledge transfer
KW - Research and Technology Organizations
KW - Research motivation
KW - Self-determination theory
U2 - 10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120882
DO - 10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120882
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85106589840
SN - 0040-1625
VL - 170
JO - Technological Forecasting and Social Change
JF - Technological Forecasting and Social Change
M1 - 120882
ER -