Work Motivation and Job Satisfaction as Antecedents of Research Performance: Investigation of Different Mediation Models

Knowledge of the factors that influence the quality and quantity of research productivity is vital for governments, universities, departments, and research groups. Using a data set of 995 young scholars in academia from the fields of business and economics, we investigate the influence of job satisfaction, two different types of work motivation, and their interrelations on research performance. Our cross-sectional data reveal that intrinsic work motivation, extrinsic work motivation and job satisfaction have a direct influence on research performance without control variables in the model. Our data support models that suggest job satisfaction as a mediator of the relationship between intrinsic work motivation and research performance. The findings also support models that demonstrate that intrinsic work motivation mediates the relationship between job satisfaction and research performance. Our findings empirically support conceptual arguments on the crucial role of intrinsic and extrinsic work motivation and job satis faction in an academic context and thus should be considered for the tailoring of appropriate incentive systems at universities. The paper provides a discussion of these findings.