Motivational recipes and research performance: a fuzzy set analysis of the motivational profile of high performing research scientists

Abstract

Recent research identifies internal self-concept motivation and instrumental motivation as having positive and negative effects, respectively, on the performance of research scientists. However, the majority of research examining the work motivations of research scientists employs bad research practices. The current study presents an alternative view of the relations between work motivations and research performance through the examination of causal recipes of research performance. Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of a random sample of 300 UK scientists identifies recipes of work motivations that effectively foster high levels of research performance. Contrary to prior liner examinations of the relations between motivation and performance, results show that no unique combination of antecedent work motivations yield higher levels of research performance. This finding suggests that several combinations of work motivations can successfully drive high levels of research performance.