| Keywords [eng] |
sharing economy, young mothers, motivational factors, community-based groups, online communication, self-determination theory, extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, basic psychological needs, plan behaviour theory, individualistic society, collectivistic society, Lithuania, Belarus |
| Abstract [eng] |
Comparison of Motivation Factors for Participation in a Sharing Economy among Young Mothers in Belarus and Lithuania. Final Master Thesis Size: 125 pages, 14 tables, 10 figures, 9 appendixes The main purpose of this Master thesis is to compare motivation of specific group of people, in particular young mothers, to engage in the sharing practice in comparison of two countries with different level of individualism – Belarus and Lithuania by Self-determination theory framework. The work consists of three main parts: literature review, research methodology, research results. Literature review presents the main concepts of the Self-Determination theory and the framework of the Theory of Plan Behaviour. This resulted in a division of the young mothers' motivations into two groups: extrinsic and intrinsic ones. They are followed by the theoretical approaches to determining a sharing economy and nature of participation of young mothers in it. That has revealed ‘monetary rewards’, ‘convenience’, ‘recognition by others’ as extrinsic motivational factors, and ‘altruism’, ‘propensity for trust’, ‘need to belong to community’, and ‘self-efficacy’ as intrinsic grounds for engagement in the sharing practice by young mothers. Lastly, the socio-economic differences between Belarus and Lithuania are covered in the theoretical analysis, such as a significant discrepancy in individualism, uncertain avoidance, and long term orientation perception among the society; different economic approach for maternity leave compensation. Testing the influence of motivational factors on Intention to participate in a sharing economy through community-based groups for young mothers and defining the role of the Country of residence with socio-economic differences is a matter of interest for the Research model development. It is decided to collect the data via online survey, using non-probability, judgmental sampling method. Research instrument is based on the 5-point Likert scale, proven its reliability in the former studies. Empirical analysis is performed by two equal questionnaires in Russian and Lithuanian languages for Belarusian and Lithuanian samples relatively. The number of respondents has reached a total of 477, whereas total number of used answers is 422. The samples are more or less homogeneous. Reliability of the used scales is appropriate for the further analysis of data. The data analysis confirms the positive impact of all extrinsic and the majority of the intrinsic motivational factors on the intention to participate in the sharing practice through mediation of ‘perceived usefulness’ and ‘enjoyment’. It includes ‘monetary rewards’, ‘convenience’, ‘recognition by others’ as extrinsic motivations and ‘altruism’, ‘propensity for trust’, and ‘self-efficacy’ as intrinsic ones. Moderating role of ‘country of residence’ is not proved. However, there is found a higher degree of possible enjoying to be involved in the sharing practice from the side of more collectivistic Belarusian women. The posthoc analysis of the data shows the following findings. 1. There is a positive correlation between the such motivational factors, as extrinsic ‘recognition by others’ and the intrinsic ‘self-efficacy’. 2. The women with a bigger number of children are less inclined to ‘self-efficacy’. 3. The mothers with more flexible working schedule do not tend to be involved in community as women with full employment. 4. Incentive to ‘monetary rewards’ is diminished when women have two children in comparison with smaller and bigger numbers of children. 5. Belarusian young mothers evaluate higher ‘Recognition by others’ and in general can be characterized as more prone to trust. Lithuanian mothers more motivated by ‘Monetary rewards’. 6. Younger age groups of surveyed mothers recognize higher perceived usefulness of the sharing practice than elder ones. The performed theoretical and empirical analyses allow for the certain conclusions and recommendations to be drawn. |
