Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.

Non-UMass Amherst users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.

Dissertations that have an embargo placed on them will not be available to anyone until the embargo expires.

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9247-2854

AccessType

Campus-Only Access for One (1) Year

Document Type

dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Program

Management

Year Degree Awarded

2023

Month Degree Awarded

May

First Advisor

Traci J. Hess

Second Advisor

Monideepa Tarafdar

Third Advisor

Linda M. Isbell

Subject Categories

E-Commerce | Management Information Systems | Technology and Innovation

Abstract

Digital platforms mediate increasingly more activities, from shopping and reviewing products to income-generating work, in which users rely on platform features and interact with strangers in cyberspace. Surprisingly, little is known about users’ experiences of motivation states during a specific digital task, despite motivations being a driver of human behaviors such as digital content-generation, which is fundamental to sustaining these platforms. Applying self-determination theory, the dissertation provides an overview of the IS motivation literature, before conducting two empirical studies in different use contexts. The first study involves a non-instrumental platform used to support online reviews, which is usually a voluntary task that is not considered an income-generating activity. The second context is an instrumental platform where people work on microtasks for money. The results show that in these two use contexts that differ in instrumentality, some motivation states are more dominant than others, and have different influences on behavioral outcomes. Further, the studies show that artifacts which give meaning to digital activities can facilitate motivation internalization and result in more desirable behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are then discussed to conclude the dissertation.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/34594979

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

Available for download on Sunday, May 26, 2024

Share

COinS